A  SERIES    OF  SKETCHES 


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HOME  MISSIONS 

OF    TME 


PRESBYTERtAN  CHURCH, US-A., 


a../o.o6~ 


PRINCETON,  N.  J. 


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Presented    bySocTvr^X  o\Cy\C>m(S.VC\\3S\0'C\S 
BX    9220     .H76    1904 


HOME    MISSION   HEROES 


A   SERIES   OF   SKETCHES 


LlTERATtTRE    DEPARTMENT 

Presbyterian  Hobie  Missions 

156  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York  City 

1904 


* 


coptright,  1904,  by 
The  Board  of  Home  Missions 
OF  THE  Presbyterian  Church 

IN  THE  U.  S.  A. 


THE  TROW  PRESS,  NEW  YORK 


FOREWORD 

To  know  the  history  of  our  Church  in  our 
land  is  to  be  interested  in  Home  Missions. 

Our  Board  of  Home  Missions  and  our 
Woman's  Board  of  Home  Missions  are  there- 
fore placing  before  our  young  people — for 
general  reading  or  for  use  in  study  classes — 
a  series  of  sketches  which  trace  the  planting 
and  progress  of  gospel  truth  among  our  In- 
dians, Mexicans,  Mormons,  Mountaineers  of 
the  South,  Alaskans,  and  the  dwellers  in 
Porto  Rico  and  Cuba.  This  book  of  the  series 
introduces  its  readers  to  seven  typical  home 
mission  heroes. 

This  little  library  of  seven  volumes,  writ- 
ten by  those  who  know  the  work,  is  warmly 
commended  for  accuracy  and  attractiveness. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  *AGB 

I.     America's     Pioneer    Home     Missionary, 

Francis  Makeraie,   1658-1708      ...       1 
By  the  Rev.  Samuel  McLanahan. 

II.     An  Apostle  to  the  Indians,  David  Braiii<- 

ard,  1T18-1747 24 

By  the  Hev.  Samuel  McLanahan. 

III.  A    Pioneer    of    the    Old    "Southwest,** 

Gideon  Blackburn,  D.D.,  1772-1838   .     45 

By  Edgar  A.  Elmore,  D.D. 

IV.  A  Winner  of  Souls,  Daniel  Baker,  D.D., 

1791-1857 67 

By  Henry  S.  Little,  D.D. 

V.     The  Pioneer  Among  the  Sioux,  Thomas 

Smith  Williamson,  M.D.,  1800-1879    .     83 
By  John  P.  Williamson,  D.D. 

VI.     The    Patriarch   of  Two   Synods,   Henry 

Little,  D.D.,  1800-1882 106 

By  George  O.  Little,  D.D. 

VII.     One   of  the   "Missouri   Ten,"   Timothy 

Hill,  D.D.,  1819-1887 126 

By  John  B.  HiU,  D.D. 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 

OPPOSITE 
PAGE 

Daniel  Baker,  D.D.,  1791-1857 67 

Rev.  Thomas  Smith  Williamson,  M.D.,   1800- 

1879 83 

Henry  Little,  D.D.,  1800-1882 106 

Timothy  Hill,  D.D.,  1819-1887 126 


PIONEERS— O  PIONEERS! 

"Come,  my  tan-faced  children. 
Follow  well  in  order,  get  your  weapons  ready. 
Have  you  your  pistols?  have  you  your  sharp-edged 
axes? 

Pioneers — O  Pioneers. 

"  For  we  can  not  tarry  here; 

We  must  march,  my  darlings,  we  must  bear  the  brunt 

of  danger; 
We  the  youthful  sinewy  races,  all  the  rest  on  us  depend. 
Pioneers — O  Pioneers. 

"We,  the  primeval  forest  felling; 

We,  the  rivers  stemming;  vexing  we,  and  piercing  deep 

the  mines  witliin; 
We,  the  surface  broad  surveying;  we,  the  virgin  soil 

upheaving; — 

Pioneers — O  Pioneers. 

"See  my  children,  resolute  children. 

By  those  swarms  upon  our  rear,  we  must  never  yield 

or  falter; 
Ages  back  in  ghostly  millions,  frowning  there  behind 

us  urging, — 

Pioneers — O  Pioneers. 

"We,  detachments  steady  throwing 

Down  the  edges  through  the  passes,  up  the  mountains 

steep, 
Conquering,  holding,  daring,  venturing  as  we  go  the 

unknown  ways. 

Pioneers — O  Pioneers. 

"All  the  past  we  leave  behind — 
We  debouch  upon  a  newer,  mightier  world; 
Fresh  and  strong  the  world  we  seize,  world  of  labor 
and  the  march. 

Pioneers — O  Pioneers." 


HOME   MISSION   HEROES 


CHAPTER    I. 

AMERICA'S   PIONEER  HOME  MISSIONARY. 
FRANCIS  MAKE^nE. 

1658—1708. 
By  the  Rev.  Samuel  McLanahan. 

Francis  Makemie  deserves  the  title  of  pio- 
neer home  missionary  among  American  Pres- 
byterians. He  himself  came  from  abroad. 
Other  Presbyterian  ministers  had  preceded 
him.  Presbyterian  churches  had  been  found- 
ed before  he  came.  But  Makemie  first  in  an 
eminent  degree  embodied  the  home  mission- 
ary spirit  and  illustrated  home  missionary 
methods.  In  his  compassion  over  the  tender 
souls  in  an  American  desert  ready  to  perish 
for  want  of  a  "vision,"  in  his  care  for  weak 
congregations  and  his  zeal  to  establish  new 
ones,  in  his  efforts  and  journeys  to  secure 
men  and  money  to  supply  these  fields,  in 
1 


2  HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

bringing  the  separated  laborers  together  in 
the  first  Presbytery,  in  his  public  spirit  and 
personal  self-sacrifice,  Francis  Makemie  ap- 
pears at  once  the  leader  and  the  incarnation  of 
Presbyterian  home  missions  in  America. 

To  find  his  birthplace  we  must  go  to  the 
north  of  Ireland.  There  in  a  cottage  on  the 
hillside  by  a  long  arm  of  the  sea  called  Lough 
Swilly,  Francis  Makemie  was  born  about 
1658 — ^the  year  Cromwell  died.  There  were 
at  least  two  older  brothers,  John  and  Robert, 
and  two  sisters,  of  whom  "Sister  Ann"  was 
youngest.  The  family  was  what  we  know  in 
America  as  Scotch-Irish.  They  were  mem- 
bers or  descendants  of  that  considerable  com- 
pany of  Scotch  people  who,  under  royal  en- 
couragement, had  helped  to  repeople  this 
desolated  region  of  Ulster,  during  the  pre- 
ceding half  century.  The  family  attended 
church  at  the  village  of  Ramelton,  nearby. 
The  children  were  strictly  governed  and  dil- 
igently taught  the  Scriptures  at  home  by 
parents  who  sought  to  train  up  not  "vassals 
for  the  Devil"  but  "servants  for  the  living 
God." 

Makemie  wrote  in  later  life  that  when  he 
came  before  Presbytery  he  was  able  to  give 
"satisfaction  to  godly,  learned  and  judicious 
discerning  men  of  a  work  of  grace  and  con- 
version wrought  in  my  heart  at  fifteen  years 


FRANCIS    MAKEMIE  3 

of  age,  by  and  from  the  pains  of  a  godly 
schoolmaster,  who  used  no  small  diligence  in 
gaining  tender  souls  to  God's  service  and 
fear." 

Evidently  he  soon  felt  called  to  be  a  min- 
ister. In  February,  1676,  "Franciscus  Make- 
mius  Scoto-Hiburnus"  was  enrolled  as  a  stu- 
dent at  the  University  of  Glasgow.  Four 
years  later,  January  twenty-eight,  1680,  he 
appeared  as  a  candidate  for  the  ministry  in 
the  Presbytery  of  Laggan,*  at  St.  Johnstown, 
a  few  miles  from  his  home.  He  bore  a  com- 
mendation from  his  pastor,  Mr.  Drummond. 
For  more  than  a  year  he  was  under  the  direc- 
tion and  examination  of  committees  that  re- 
ported favorably.  Twice  the  meeting  heard 
him  preach,  and  finally  Presbytery  licensed 
and  ordained  him  somewhere  in  the  years 
1681-2. 

Of  the  latter  acts  no  written  record  is 
known  to  exist.  The  probable  reason  is  in- 
teresting and  suggestive.  The  period  of 
Makemie's  youth  was  a  hard  time  for  Pres- 
byterians in  both  Scotland  and  Ireland.  The 
treacherous,  profligate,  time-serving  Charles 
II  was  on  the  throne.  Repeated  efforts  were 
made  to  enforce  episcopacy.  Wave  after 
wave  of  persecution  threatened  to  destroy 
every  vestige  of  Presbyterianism.     But  when 

*  For  full  extracts  of  Minutes,  see  Bowen,  p.  515  sq. 


4         HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

the  ebb  came,  the  strong  foundations  reap- 
peared and  earnest  hands  quickly  rebuilt  the 
superstructure. 

Just  when  Makemie  sought  the  Presbytery, 
one  of  the  worst  of  these  waves  was  swell- 
ing. So  severe  was  it  that  in  after  years  this 
period  was  known,  by  eminence,  as  "the  kill- 
ing time."  It  was  particularly  dangerous 
to  be  a  Presbyterian  minister.  Makemie's 
pastor,  Drummond,  had  been  one  of  sixty-one 
ministers  driven  from  their  pulpits  in  I66I. 
They  were  forbidden  under  heavy  penalties  to 
perform  any  ministerial  act.  Three  years 
later  this  same  pastor,  with  three  others,  had 
been  thrown  into  prison  for  six  years  for  dis- 
obedience. Just  at  the  time  that  the  written 
minutes  which  tell  of  Makemie's  trials  break 
off,  the  Rev.  William  Trail,  the  Moderator, 
with  others  of  the  Presbytery,  was  arrested 
>  for  holding  a  fast  day.*  That  in  such  cir- 
cumstances, Francis  Makemie  sought  the 
Presbyterian  ministry,  is  proof  of  his  zeal 
and  courage. 

In  December,  I68O,  while  Makemie  was 
under  the  care  of  the  Presbytery  and  was 
probably  present,  its  minutes  record : 

"Colonell  Stevens  from  Maryland  beside 
Virginia  his  desire  of  a  godly  minister  is  pre- 

*  For  full  and  interesting  report  of  trial  see  Reid's 
History  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  Ireland. 


FRANCIS    MAKEMIE  5 

sented  to  us.  The  meeting  will  consider  it 
seriously  and  do  what  they  can  in  it." 

"When  the  Rev.  William  Trail  was  released 
from  the  imprisonment  above  noted,  he  came 
to  America,  probably  in  1682,  In  1684  the 
majority  of  the  ministers  of  this  Presbytery 
of  Laggan  intimated  to  other  Presbyteries^ 
their  purpose  to  emigrate  to  America  "be- 
cause of  persecution  and  general  poverty 
abounding  in  those  parts  (Ireland)  and  on  ac- 
count of  their  straits  and  little  or  no  access 
to  their  ministry."  Makemie  was  not  afraid 
to  preach  in  Ireland.  He  did  so  as  we  know  at 
Burt,  April  second,  1682.  Yet  from  hin- 
drances in  Ireland  on  the  one  hand  and  the 
Macedonian  call  from  over  the  sea  on  the 
other,  Makemie  seems  to  have  gathered  "that 
the  Lord  had  called"  him  to  preach  the  gos- 
pel in  America. 

A  letter  from  Elizabeth  River  of  July 
twenty-second,  1684,  shows  that  he  had  been 
in  "Maryland,"  doubtless  the  eastern  shore. 
There  Colonel  Stevens,  who  had  written  to 
the  Presbytery,  lived.  There  we  suppose  Mr. 
Trail  already  was  as  pastor  of  Rehoboth,  a 
position  we  know  he  held  a  little  later.* 
Probably  the  Rev.  Thomas  Wilson, f  known 

*  Somersett  records  give  marriage  by  him  1684. 
Bowen,  523. 

t  A  Thomas  Wilson  obtains  land  1681.  McIIvain, 
p.  20. 


6         HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

to  have  been  pastor  at  Manokin  (Princess 
Anne,  Maryland)  and  perhaps  the  Rev.  Sam- 
uel Davis,*  earliest  known  pastor  of  Snow 
Hill,  Maryland,  were  also  in  that  region.  At 
all  events  Mr.  Makemie  had  not  settled  there 
then  and  did  not  intend  to  do  so.  He  was 
prospecting  for  himself  and  others.  He  wrote 
letters  to  points  as  widely  separated  as  Massa- 
chusetts and  South  Carolina.  He  had  pro- 
jected a  journey  south.  He  was  hindered 
from  fully  carrying  out  his  plan,  as  we  will 
see.  Under  these  circumstances  he  writes  in 
the  letter  quoted  above: 

"But  for  the  satisfaction  of  my  friends  in 
Ireland,  whom  I  design  to  be  very  nice  in  in- 
viting to  any  place  of  America  I  have  yet 
seen,  I  have  sent  one  of  our  number  to  ac- 
quaint me  further  concerning  the  place" 
(Ashley  River). 

On  his  way  south  he  had  preached  for  a 
time  to  little  companies  of  Presbyterian  Puri- 
tans f  on  the  Elizabeth  River,  Virginia,  near 
the  present  site  of  Norfolk,  Virginia.  Then 
proceeding  to  North  Carolina,  he  embarked 
for  Ashley  River  (near  Charleston,  South 
Carolina).     Buffeted  by  contrary  winds  for 

*  Somersett  records  give  marriage  by  him  1684. 
Bowen,  523. 

t  See  article  by  Rev.  E.  Mack,  D.D.,  Pres.  Ortly, 
July,  1901,  p.  398. 


FRANCIS    MAKEMIE  7 

five  weeks  and  driven  as  far  north  as  Dela- 
ware Bay,  the  vessel  finally  put  into  the 
Chesapeake  for  supplies. 

Some  of  the  Elizabeth  River  congregation 
happened  at  the  landing  and  renewed  their 
importunity  that  he  should  become  their  min- 
ister. It  seemed  to  him  the  hand  of  God.  He' 
resolved,  as  he  says,  "to  submit  myself  to  the 
sovereign  providence  of  God,  who  has  been 
pleased  so  unexpectedly  to  drive  me  back  to 
this  poor,  desolate  people,  among  whom  I  de- 
sire to  continue  till  God  in  his  providence  de- 
termine otherwise  concerning  me," 

This  was  evidently  his  first  settlement;  he 
obtained  a  house  and  lot  there.  When  he 
appeared  on  the  eastern  shore  a  few  years 
later  he  was  already  a  man  of  some  property. 
Under  these  circumstances  it  seems  probable 
that  while  ministering  to  the  Elizabeth  River 
congregation,  Mr.  Makemie  began  for  his  own 
support  the  West  India  trading  in  which  we 
know  he  was  subsequently  engaged.  His  suc- 
cessor in  that  charge,  the  Rev.  Josias  Mackie, 
conducted  a  store  and  plantation,  although  he 
had  four  registered  preaching  points.  All 
that  we  know  indicates  that  Mr.  Makemie  re- 
mained on  the  Elizabeth  River  until  about 
1690. 

It  is  in  1690  that  we  first  find  him  estab- 
lished on  the  shore  of  the  Chesapeake.     In 


8         HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

that  year  his  name  appears  on  the  list  of 
taxables  in  Accomack  County,  Virginia.  He 
was  assessed  for  three  "tithables"  (servants). 
He  became  possessed  of  a  plantation  on  the 
south  side  of  Matchatank  Creek.  Almost 
certainly  the  occasion  of  his  removal  is  to  be 
found  in  the  return  that  year  of  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Trail  to  Scotland,  where  he  took  charge.  This 
would  leave  vacant  Rehoboth,  apparently  the 
most  important  charge.  By  the  terms  of  a 
will  dated  in  l691j  Mr.  Makemie  had  become 
"minister  of  the  Gospel  at  Rehoboth  Town." 
He  was  bequeathed  "five  thousand  pounds  of 
pork,"  convenient  to  him  or  his  order  within 
twelve  months. 

Apparently  about  this  time  Mr.  Makemie 
issued  his  first  publication — a  Catechism  for 
"young  ones."  No  copy  of  it  is  known  to 
exist.  George  Keith,  then  a  prominent  mem- 
ber of  the  Society  of  Friends,  came  into  the 
region.  He  visited  Mr.  Makemie  at  his  house 
at  Pocomoke  (Rehoboth?)  and  challenged 
him  to  a  public  discussion.  This  Mr.  Make- 
mie declined,  as  likely  to  be  indecisive  and 
profitless,  but  suggested  instead  that  Keith 
should  write  a  criticism  of  the  doctrines 
taught  in  the  Catechism.  To  this  Makemie 
would  reply  in  writing.  This  was  done,  and 
the  whole,  with  some  additional  strictures  by 
JNIr.   Makemie,   was  ultimately  published  by 


FRANCIS    MAKEMIE  9 

him  in  Boston  in  1693.  Increase  Mather  gave 
the  book  his  "Imprimatur"  in  black  letters; 
and  he,  his  son  Cotton  and  other  prominent 
ministers  united  in  commending  the  discourses 
as  "seasonable  and  profitable,"  and  speak  of 
the  "faithful  endeavours"  of  the  "reverent 
and  judicious  author." 

Probably  late  in  that  year  Mr.  Makemie 
went  abroad.  He  was  in  London.*  He  re- 
turned early  in  1692.  He  seems  to  have 
brought  some  colonists  with  him,  for  in  Feb- 
ruary of  that  year  the  court  of  Accomack 
grants  him  four  hundred  and  fifty  acres  of 
land  for  bringing  nine  settlers  into  the  prov- 
ince. One  of  these  was  his  nephew,  William 
Boggs.  As  the  Rev.  Josias  Mackie,  who  took 
his  place  on  the  Elizabeth  River,  was  from 
his  old  home  region  in  the  north  of  Ireland 
and  qualified  as  a  minister  in  Virginia,  June, 
1692,  it  is  entirely  possible  that  he  too  had 
been  induced  to  come  over  for  this  purpose  by 
Mr.  Makemie. 

It  is  about  this  time  that  Mr.  Makemie 
alludes  to  "my  tedious  affliction" — as  enig- 
matical as  Paul's  thorn  in  the  flesh.  What- 
ever it  was,  it  hindered  his  transcribing  his 
answer  to  Keith  for  a  year. 

It  was  in  this  year  1692  also  that  he  made 
his  first  visit  to  Philadelphia,  "Having,"  he 
*  Webster,  299. 


10       HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

says,  "satisfied  my  longing  desire  in  visiting 
Pennsylvania."  Webster  makes  the  very 
probable  suggestion  that  he  preached  there, 
but  of  this  there  is  no  note.  His  visit  was 
particularly  related  to  his  discussion  with 
Keith. 

Mr.  Makemie's  name  disappears  from  the 
tax-roll  of  Virginia  in  1693.  Probably  in 
that  year,  certainly  before  I696,  he  went  to 
the  island  of  Barbadoes.  This  is  the  most 
easterly  of  the  islands  associated  with  our 
American  continent.  It  was  the  chief  calling 
place  of  vessels  between  the  new  and  old 
worlds.  An  active  trade  was  carried  on  with 
the  Chesapeake.  It  had  then  as  now  a  very 
mixed  population.  ^Motives  of  health  and  of 
business  may  have  had  something  to  do  with 
^Ir.  Makemie's  going,  but  all  that  we  know 
of  him  there  relates  to  religious  work.  It  is 
chiefly  contained  in  a  tractate,  vindicating  the 
Non-Conformists,  which  was  called  "Truths 
in  a  True  Light:  or  a  Pastoral  Letter  to  the 
Reformed  Protestants  in  Barbadoes";  and  in 
two  letters  to  Increase  Mather.  In  the  for- 
mer letter  he  expresses  his  disappointment 
that  Samuel  Mather,  whom  he  had  expected 
to  come  and  take  his  place,  seemed  to  have 
decided  to  go  elsewhere.  ^lakemie  wrote 
under  date  of  January  17,  1698: 

"I  shall  be  necessitated  to  leave  this  people. 


FRANCIS    MAKEMIE  11 

and  many  strangers,  who  resort  to  this  island 
desolate,  being  purely  confined  these  two 
years  from  going  off  for  my  health,  for  want 
of  supply." 

The  Mather  letters,  just  referred  to,  and 
notices  of  his  presence  in  the  Virginia  records  _ 
later  in  that  year,  enable  us  to  fix  the  early 
part  of  1698  as  the  time  of  his  return  to  the 
eastern  shore  of  Virginia.  The  movements  of 
Mr.  Makemie  himself  and  indications  drawn 
from  the  will  of  his  father-in-law,  made  on 
July  twenty-third  of  that  year,  point  to  the 
spring  of  1698  as  the  date  of  Makemie's  mar- 
riage. His  wife  was  Naomi,  daughter  of 
William  Anderson,  a  wealthy  planter  and 
trader,  whose  home,  "Pocomoke,"  was  on  the 
bay  and  near  the  mouth  of  the  river  of  that 
name.  By  the  will  of  Mr.  Anderson,  who 
died  in  August,  this  plantation  with  much 
other  property  passed  into  the  hands  of  the 
Makemies.  It  became  their  home.  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Makemie  were  executors  of  the  will. 
They  were  called  to  fill  a  like  office  in  1701 
for  Edmund  Custis,  a  wealthy  neighbor  who, 
passing  by  relatives,  committed  his  children 
as  well  as  his  estate  to  their  care.  The  new 
responsibilities  must  have  made  large  drafts 
on  Mr.  Makemie's  time  and  attention.  He 
built  a  mill  near  one  of  Mr.  Anderson's  out- 
lying estates.    He  purchased  additional  prop- 


12       HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

erty  in  his  own  name.  His  business  transac- 
tions brought  him  frequently  into  the  local 
courts,  where  he  appeared  as  his  own  lawyer. 
But  these  secular  affairs  did  not  lead  him  to 
demit  his  ministry,  nor  so  far  as  we  can  dis- 
cover, to  remit  his  zeal. 

It  is  matter  of  tradition  that  Mr.  Makemie 
was  arrested  for  preaching  in  Virginia,  and 
that  he  was  taken  to  Williamstown,  where  he 
so  ably  pleaded  the  cause  of  the  dissenters  as 
not  only  to  clear  himself,  but  to  secure  the 
formal  recognition  of  the  Toleration  Act  by 
the  Governor  and  Council.  It  is  of  record 
that  the  latter  action  was  taken  in  April, 
1699,  and  that  in  October  of  that  year  Mr. 
Makemie  was  granted  a  certificate  which  au- 
thorized him  to  preach,  and  named  his  own 
dwelling-house  at  Pocomoke,  also  his  own 
house  at  Onancock,  as  "the  first  places  of  his 
constant  and  ordinary  preaching."  There  is 
evidence  that  he  ministered  also  at  points  in 
Somersett  County,  ]Mar3'land. 

The  opening  of  the  eighteenth  century  was 
marked  in  many  of  the  colonies  by  an  effort 
to  enforce  conformity  to  the  English  Church. 
The  accession  of  Queen  Anne  in  1702  and  the 
formation  of  the  Society  for  the  Propagation 
of  the  Gospel  were  the  immediate  occasions. 
The  special  agent  of  the  latter  society  was  the 
former  Friend,  George  Keith,  who  after  a  few 


FRANCIS    MAKEMIE  13 

3'^ears'  absence  had  returned  to  America  in 
Episcopal  orders.  With  him  was  associated 
the  Rev.  John  Talbot.  They  traveled  widely 
through  the  colonies  from  1 702-4. 

Dr.  Briggs  (p.  138)  is  doubtless  right  in 
finding  in  this  active  propaganda  one  of  the 
occasions,  but  certainly  only  one  of  the  occa- 
sions, which  incited  Mr.  Makemie  to  go 
abroad  for  reinforcements.  He  at  first  in- 
tended to  go  in  1 703,  but  did  not  get  off  until 
1704.     Two  things  mark  this  visit. 

One  was  his  publication  of  what  he  calls 
"A  Plain  and  Friendly  Persuasive  to  the  In- 
habitants of  Virginia  and  Maryland  for  Pro- 
moting Towns  and  Co-habitation."  The 
advantages  of  the  towns  for  promoting  re- 
ligion as  well  as  temporal  well-being  is  set 
forth  in  it.  The  other  and  more  notable 
feature  was  his  success  in  securing  two  young 
ministers  to  return  with  him.  They  were 
George  McNish,  a  Scotchman  who  subse- 
quently labored  in  IMaryland  and  on  Long 
Island,  and  John  Hampton  from  Mr.  Make- 
mie's  old  Presbytery  of  Laggan  in  Ireland. 
He  presently  settled  for  life  at  Snow  Hill, 
IMaryland.  Mr.  ]\Iakemie  also  secured  from 
the  London  ministers  the  promise  of  support 
of  these  two  young  men  for  two  years,  during 
which  they  were  to  itinerate  among  the  scat- 
tered settlements.    After  that  time  they  were 


14       HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

expected  to  settle  as  pastors,  and  two  more 
young  men  were  to  be  sent  out  and  supported 
for  a  like  purpose.  This  scheme,  which  was 
undoubtedly  Mr.  Makemie's,  shows  that  he 
had  the  whole  field  in  his  mind  and  was  plan- 
ning for  persistent  extension.  The  arrange- 
ments were  not  carried  out  after  his  death.* 

In  1706,  the  year  following  Mr.  Makemie's 
return,  the  first  Presbytery  on  American  soil 
M'as  formed  in  Philadelphia.  Its  members 
were  Mr.  Makemie,  Rev.  John  Wilson,  Na- 
thaniel Taylor,  and  Samuel  Davis  (who  were 
Mr.  Makemie's  older  co-laborers  on  the  pen- 
insula), John  Hampton  and  George  McNish 
(just  brought  over  by  him),  and  Jedediah  An- 
drews, of  Philadelphia.  That  Mr,  Makemie 
was  the  leading  spirit  in  forming  it  and  that 
he  was  its  first  moderator  can  scarcely  be 
questioned.  He  held  the  latter  office  at  the 
second  meeting,  which  was  held  at  Freehold, 
New  Jersey,  December,  1706. 

Immediately  following  the  second  meeting 
of  Presbytery  Mr.  Makemie  and  Mr.  Hamp- 
ton set  out  for  Boston.  Probably  the  trip 
was  in  the  interest  of  extending  the  new  or- 
ganization, for  a  letter  written  a  few  months 
later  shows  that  he  had  such  extension  in 
mind. 

Being  in  New  York  they  paid  their  re- 
*  See  Briggs,  p.  165. 


FRANCIS    MAKEMIE  15 

spects  to  the  Governor,  Lord  Cornbury.  They 
were  invited  to  dine  with  him.  Subsequently 
Mr.  Makeniie  was  asked  to  remain  over  Sun- 
day and  preach.  He  consented.  The  Dutch 
would  have  given  their  church,  but  the  Gov- 
ernor, when  approached  by  the  promoters  of 
the  service,  refused  to  allow  Mr.  Makemie  to' 
preach.  But  Mr.  Makemie,  "  Consider  in  g/' 
as  he  afterwards  wrote,  "the  solemn  obliga- 
tions I  am  under  both  to  God  and  the  souls  of 
men — to  embrace  all  opportunities  for  exer- 
cising those  ministerial  gifts  vouchsafed  from 
heaven,')  preached,  nevertheless,  in  a  private 
house.  Mr.  Hampton  preached  on  Long 
Island.  For  this  they  were  arrested  and 
illegally  held  as  prisoners  for  more  than  six 
weeks,  in  the  face  of  numerous  pleas  and 
petitions.  At  length  they  were  released  on 
bail,  and  Mr.  Hampton  was  presently  dis- 
charged. 

"Being  let  go,"  like  the  Apostles,  "they 
went  to  their  own  company" — the  little  Pres- 
bytery in  Philadelphia,  which  had  adjourned 
a  few  days  to  await  their  coming.  There  Mr. 
Makemie  discoursed  to  his  brethren  by  ap- 
pointment on  Hebrews  I:  1,  2.  He  went 
thence  to  Virginia  but  he  was  back  in  New 
York,  accompanied  by  his  serving  man,  ready 
to  stand  his  trial  in  Jvme.  The  question  in- 
volved the  right  of  dissenting  ministers  in  the 


16       HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

colonies  under  the  Toleration  Act  of  Great 
Britain.  The  judge,  Mompesson,  said  in  the 
trial, 

"This  is  the  first  instance  I  can  learn 
[there]  has  been  of  a  trial  or  prosecution  of 
this  nature  in  America," 

and  Mr.  Makemie  reiterates  this  statement 
in  his  published  account.  He  regarded  him- 
self as  engaged  not  simply  in  defending  him- 
self, but  in  establishing  a  vital  principle  in 
the  religious  and  civil  life  of  the  colonies. 
Able  professional  counsel  assisted  in  the  de- 
fence, but  Mr.  Makemie  himself  made  the 
most  able,  broad,  and  striking  speech.  His 
passes  with  the  Governor  and  the  attorneys  in 
this  controversy  sliow  his  readiness  and  clear- 
headedness. Although  the  Governor  and  the 
Court  were  evidently  against  him,  the  jury 
quickly  brought  in  a  verdict  of  "Not  guilty." 
But  the  Court  imposed  all  the  charges,  in- 
cluding those  of  the  prosecuting  attorney, 
tipon  the  man  who  had  just  been  declared 
innocent,  and  had  already  suffered  much 
unjustly. 

It  is  quite  characteristic  that  Mr.  Makemie, 
after  acquital,  remained  in  New  York  over 
the  following  Sunday,  and  again  preached. 
It  is  equally  characteristic  of  the  Governor 
that  he  attempted  to  have  him  re-arrested  on 
a  false  charge  about  another  matter,  and  that 


FRANCIS    MAKEMIE  17 

Mr.  Makemie  with  difficulty  escaped  from 
New  Jersey  into  New  England.  There  Mr. 
Makemie  published  an  account  of  the  impris- 
onment and  trial. 

The  trial  made  a  great  stir  in  New  York 
and  throughout  the  colonies.  It  is  said  to 
have  been  an  influential  factor  in  the  recall  * 
of  Lord  Cornbury  shortly  after.  Makemie's 
account  was  re-published  in  1755  for  its  bear- 
ing on  the  growing  conflict  between  the  colo- 
nies and  the  mother  country,  which  issued  in 
the  Revolution,  1776. 

In  the  summer  of  1708  Mr.  Makemie  died 
at  his  Virginia  home.  He  was  scarcely  fifty 
years  of  age.  Just  one  half  of  his  life  had 
been  devoted  to  promoting  the  cause  of  Christ 
in  the  New  World.  JNIr.  Makemie  lies  in  an 
unmarked,  if  indeed  it  be  not  an  unknown, 
grave.  He  left  a  widow  and  two  daughters. 
The  elder  of  these,  Elizabeth,  died  shortly 
after  her  father.  The  younger,  Anna,  mar- 
ried and  lived  to  old  age,  but  had  no  children. 

There  is  no  contemporary  description  of 
Mr.  Makemie's  appearance.  A  picture  from 
life  existed  until  1831,  when  it  was  burned. 
Dr.  Bowen  bases  an  imaginary  description  of 
him  upon  the  recollection  of  that  picture  given 
nearly  half  a  century  after  its  destruction  by 
a  daughter  of  INIr.  Balch,  in  whose  home  it 
hung  when   destroyed.      He   speaks   of    Mr. 


18        HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

Makeraie  as  "Wearing  the  black  Genevan 
gown  and  the  white  bands";  as  having  "an 
intellectual  forehead,  crowned  with  brown 
locks";  "a  fair  complexion,  expressive  blue 
eyes  and,  over  all,  the  mein  of  an  Irish  gen- 
tleman." 

The  bequests  and  trusts  committed  to  him, 
his  numerous  nanjesakes  on  both  sides  of  the 
sea,  the  explicit  testimony  of  contemporaries 
both  lay  and  clerical,  and  the  fragrant  tra- 
dition *  which  still  lingers  about  the  scene  of 
his  ministry,  attest  tlie  confidence  and  affec- 
tion which  he  inspired. 

His  correspondence  shows  that  he  was  a 
lover  and  reader  of  books.  He  possessed  at 
the  time  of  his  death  what  was  then  a  large 
library,  about  a  thousand  volumes,  on  the- 
ology, law  and  miscellaneous  subjects,  includ- 
ing books  in  Hebrew,  Greek  and  Latin.  His 
productions  which  survive  are  not  always 
smooth  and  clear  in  style,  but  they  show  keen 
intelligence,  original  and  vigorous  thought, 
sane  and  comprehensive  judgment,  and  a 
forceful,  if  sometimes  rugged,  utterance. 
Tradition  ascribes  to  him  the  native  Irish  trait 
of  eloquent  speech. 

Lord  Cornbury  in  an  intended  slur  paid 
him  a  true  compliment  when  he  said, 

"He  is  a  Jack-at-all-trades;  he  is  a  preach- 
*  See  particulars,  Spence,  p.  81. 


FRANCIS    MAKEMIE  19 

er,  a  doctor  of  physic,  a  merchant,  an  attor- 
ney, a  counsellor-at-law,  and,  which  is  worst, 
a  disturber  of  governments." 

He  was  called  upon  to  do  many  things  in 
many  different  places,  and  he  seems  to  have 
wrought  effectively  in  all — disturbing  even 
Lord  Cornbury's  unrighteous  government. 
-^  Circumstances,  disposition  and  intention 
seem  to  have  conspired  to  make  him  a  cham- 
pion of  religious  liberty.  The  experiences  of 
his  youth  gave  him  an  understanding  of  what 
was  involved  in  the  question.  His  observa- 
tions in  the  Barbadoes  led  him  to  study  and 
write  upon  the  subject.  His  arrest  (or  ar- 
rests) in  the  colonies  summoned  him,  thus  fit- 
ted, to  do  public  battle  for  the  principles  he 
had  espoused.  It  was  his  privilege  to  win 
victory  not  for  himself  alone,  but  for  the 
great  body  of  Christian  people  then  on  this 
continent.  His  account  of  the  trial  gave  pub- 
licity and  permanence  to  it. 

But  before  all  and  in  all  Francis  Makemie 
waji  a  Missionary.  He  came  to  America  with- 
out pledge  of  support  behind  him  or  promise 
of  place  before  him.  On  account  of  the  gen- 
eral poverty  he  did  not  seek  a  fixed  salary,  but 
received  such  offerings  as  were  freely  made. 
Like  the  Apostle  Paul,  he  engaged  in  busi- 
ness; but  he  portrays  himself  when  he  is  de- 
scribing   ministers    who   "Have   been   neces- 


20       HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

sitated  to  labor  with  their  hands  and  to  betake 
themselves  for  a  time  to  merchandising,  and 
jxt  would  never  dare  to  lay  aside  the  preach- 
ing of  the  gospel." 

It  was  the  destitution  not  the  emoluments 
which  led  him  to  Elizabeth  River,  which  held 
him  for  years  in  Barbadoes.  He  became  a 
man  of  property,  but  it  was  held  for  the 
Lord's  use.  His  houses  were  preaching 
points.  Rehoboth  church  was  built  on  the  lot 
which  he  gave.  Even  on  the  Lord's  business, 
he  traveled  at  his  own  charge.  His  soul  was 
burdened  for  the  immigrants,  of  whom  he 
says  that  they,  "Removing  to  remote  settle- 
ments, neglected  by  others  and  careless  of 
themselves,  continue  grossly  ignorant  of  many 
necessary  parts  of  the  Christian  religion"; 
and  for  native  whites  "born  in  ignorant  fam- 
ilies," and  who  "by  distance  seldom  hear  a 
sermon."  His  interest  extended  also  to  "all 
pagans,  whether  Indians  or  negroes."  He 
gave  his  best  efforts  to  the  ministry  of  the 
gospel,  whatever  else  he  did,  seeking  "by  all 
means  to  save  some." 

It  is  impossible  now  to  tell  what  share  he 
had  in  establishing  particular  churches.  The 
organization  of  the  first  Presbytery  through 
his  statesmanship  and  influence  gave  a  crown, 
a  j^ermanence,  and  an  extension  to  his  work 
of  which  he  never  could  have  dreamed.     His 


FRANCIS    MAKEMIE  21 

works  follow  him.  Churches  he  tended  still 
live  and  fruit.  The  Presbytery  which  he 
helped  to  form  has  become  three  Assemblies. 
In  these  great  organizations,  the  missionary 
spirit  and  methods  which  Francis  Makemie 
exemplified  survive,  and  through  them  the 
gospel  is  being  carried  to  men  of  our  own  and 
all  lands. 


22       HOME    MISSION    HEROES 


KNOWN    PUBLICATIONS    OF    THE    REV. 
FRANCIS  MAKEMIE. 

A  Catechism.  About  50  pages.  1691  (?)  No  extant 
copy. 

An  Answer  to  George  Keith's  Libel  Ag.mnst  a 
Catechism  Published  by  Fr.vncis  Makemie. 
Boston,  1693.  Two  copies  known,  one  in  Old 
South  Church  Library,  the  other  in  that  of  the 
Massachusetts  Historical  Society,  Boston. 

Truths  in  a  True  Light  or — A  Pastoral  Letter 
to  the  Reformed  Protestants  in  Barbadoes, 
Vindicating  the  Non-Comf  or  mists,  etc.,  Edin- 
burgh, 1699.  One  copy.  Library  of  Harvard 
University. 

A  Plain  and  Friendly  Persuasive  to  the  In- 
habit^uvts  of  Virginia  and  Maryl.\nd  for 
Promoting  Towns  and  Cohabitation.  By  a 
well-wisher  to  both  Governments.  London,  1705. 
One  copy.     Ivibrary  of  Harvard  University. 

A  Good  Conversation.  A  sermon  preached  at  the 
City  of  New  York,  January  19,  1706-7.  Boston, 
1707.  Republished  in  Collections  of  New  York 
Historical  Society,  III,  1870,  p.  411. 

A  Narrative  of  a  New  and  Unusual  American 
Imprisonment  of  Two  Presbyterian  Minis- 
ters: AND  Prosecution  of  Mr.  Francis  Ma- 
kemie, Etc.  By  a  Learner  of  Law  and  Lover 
of  Liberty.     Reprinted  in  Force's  Historical  Tracts. 

Five  Private  Letters.  Most  fully  and  accurately 
given  in  Briggs'  American  Presbyteriaiiism,  Ap- 
pendix X. 


FRANCIS   MAKEMIE  23 


PRINCIPAL    AUTHORITIES    ON    THE    LIFE 
OF  MAKEMIE. 

BowEN,  Rev.  L.  P.,  D.D.  "The  Days  of  Makemie." 
Philadelphia,  1885,  p.  558. 

Briggs,  Rev.  C,  D.D.,  "American  Presbyterianism." 
New  York,  1885. 

Hill,  William.  "History  of  the  Rise,  Progress, 
Genius  and  Character  of  American  Presbyterian- 
ism," Washington,  1839. 

McIlvain,  Rev.  J.  William.  "Early  Presbji:erisn- 
ism  in  Maryland,  Notes  Supplementary  to  the 
Johns  Hopkins  University  Studies  in  Historical 
and  Political  Science,"  1890,  No.  8. 

Spence,  Irving,  Esq.  "Letters  on  the  Early  History 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  America,   1838." 

Sprague,  Rev.  W.  B.,  D.D.  "Annals  of  the  Ameri- 
can Pulpit." 

Webster,  Rev.  Richakd.  "A  History  of  the  Pres- 
byterian Church  in  America,  1857." 


CHAPTER    II. 

AN  APOSTLE  TO  THE  INDIANS, 
DAVID  BRAINERD. 

1718—1747. 

By  The  Rev.  Samuel  McLanahan. 

Valuable,  even  wonderful  as  men  account- 
ed what  Brainerd  did,  the  power  and  pathos 
of  his  story  lie  chiefly  in  what  he  was.  His 
diaries  are  the  main  source  of  information. 
Extracts  were  published  by  the  Society  which 
emj^loyed  him  during  his  lifetime.  After  his 
death  Jonathan  Edwards  edited  and  pub- 
lished much  of  the  remaining  portions  in  his 
"Life  of  David  Brainerd."  This  has  been  a 
religious  classic  on  both  sides  of  the  sea  for  a 
century  and  a  half.  It  is  significant  of  the 
real  communion  of  saints  that  John  Wesley, 
the  Arminian,  re-published  a  briefer  edition 
of  the  life  of  this  high  Calvinist,  and  that 
Henry  Martyn,  the  early  and  devoted  mis- 
sionary of  the  Church  of  England,  found  the 
impulse  and  example  for  his  devotion  in  the 
life  of  this  non-conformist.  Dr.  Prentiss 
calls  him  "the  missionary  saint  of  New  Eng- 
21. 


DAVID    BRAINERD  25 

land,"  while  Pennsylvania  and  New  Jersey 
claim  him  because  he  wrought  there.  Trained 
among  Congregationalists,  he  was  ordained 
and  labored  among  Presbyterians. 

David  Brainerd  was  born  at  Haddam,  Con- 
necticut, April  twentieth,  1718.  His  father, 
Hezekiah,  and  his  father's  father,  Daniel,  had 
been  active  in  business,  church  and  public 
affairs.  His  mother,  Dorothy  Hobart,  came 
of  a  double  line  of  ministerial  ancestors.  Of 
her  five  sons,  four  chose  the  ministry.  John, 
next  younger  than  David,  became  the  latter's 
successor  among  the  Indians.  His  father 
died  when  David  was  nine  and  his  mother 
when  he  was  fourteen.  The  next  year  he 
left  home  and  lived  for  four  years  at  East 
Haddam.  At  the  age  of  nineteen  he  started 
to  work  his  own  farm  at  Durham,  Connecti- 
cut. But  his  longings  for  a  liberal  education 
led  him  to  abandon  farming  within  a  year  and 
devote  himself  to  study. 

Of  his  religious  experience  in  this  early 
period  we  have  this  brief  but  interesting 
sketch  from  his  own  hand: 

"I  was  from  my  youth  somewhat  sober,  and 
inclined  to  melancholy;  but  do  not  remember 
anything  of  conviction  of  sin,  worthy  of  re- 
mark, till  I  was,  I  believe,  about  seven  or 
eight  years  of  age.  Then  I  became  con- 
cerned   for    my   soul,    and    terrified    at    the 


26       HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

tlioughts  of  death:  and  was  driven  to  the 
performance  of  religious  duties;  but  it  ap- 
peared a  melancholy  business^  that  destroyed 
my  eagerness  for  play.  And  though,  alas ! 
this  religious  concern  was  but  short-lived,  I 
sometimes  attended  secret  prayer:  and  thus 
lived  at  'ease  in  Zion^  without  God  in  the 
world/  and  without  much  concern,  as  I  re- 
member, till  I  was  above  thirteen  years  of 
age.  In  the  winter  of  1732,  I  was  roused 
out  of  this  carnal  security,  by  I  scarce  know 
what  means  at  firstj  but  was  much  excited 
by  the  prevalence  of  mortal  sickness  in  Had- 
dam.  I  was  frequent,  constant,  and  some- 
what fervent  in  prayer:  and  took  delight  in 
reading,  especially  Mr.  Janeway's  Token  for 
Children.  I  felt  sometimes  much  melted  in 
the  duties  of  religion,  took  great  delight  in 
the  performance  of  them,  and  sometimes 
hoped  that  I  was  converted,  or  at  least  in  a 
good  and  hopeful  way  for  heaven  and  hap- 
piness; not  knowing  what  conversion  was. 
The  Spirit  of  God  at  this  time  proceeded  far 
with  me.  I  was  remarkably  dead  to  the 
world:  my  thoughts  were  almost  wholly  em- 
ployed about  my  soul's  concerns:  and  I  may 
indeed  say,  'Almost  I  was  jDcrsuaded  to  be 
a  Christian.'  I  was  also  exceedingly  dis- 
tressed and  melancholy  at  the  death  of  my 
mother,  in  March,  1732.     But  afterwards  my 


DAVID    BRAINERD  27 

religious  concern  began  to  decline,  and  by  de- 
grees I  fell  back  into  a  considerable  degree 
of  security,  though  I  still  attended  secret 
prayer." 

During  the  four  years  at  East  Haddam  he 
"went  a  round  of  secret  duty" ;  went  little  into 
the  company  and  amusements  of  the  young 
and  felt  uncomfortable  when  he  did;  but  had 
some  "good  frames,"  in  which  he  found  satis- 
faction.    Later  he  Avrote  of  them, 

"But,  alas !  all  my  good  frames  were  but 
self-righteousness,  not  founded  on  a  desire 
for  the  glory  of  God." 

Of  himself  at  twenty,  when  he  decided  to 
devote  himself  to  study,  he  writes : 

"I  became  very  strict  and  watchful  over 
my  thoughts,  words  and  actions,  concluded 
that  I  must  be  sober  indeed,  because  I  de- 
signed to  devote  myself  to  the  ministry:  and 
imagined  that  I  did  dedicate  myself  to  the 
Lord." 

He  went  to  live  with  the  pastor  at  Had- 
dam, who  encouraged  him  in  these  austerities. 
It  is  interesting  to  note  tliat  young  people's 
meetings  were  held  even  then,  for  he  writes, 

"So  much  concerned  was  I  about  religion, 
that  I  agreed  with  some  young  persons  to 
meet  privately  on  Sabbath  evenings  for  relig- 
ious exercises." 

He  read  the  Bible  diligently,  prayed  much. 


28       HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

reviewed  carefully  the  sermons  he  heard,  "and 
had  many  thoughts  of  joining  the  church.  In 
short,  I  had  a  very  good  outside,  and  rested 
entirely  on  my  duties,  though  I  was  not  sen- 
sible of  it. 

"Thus  I  proceeded  a  considerable  length 
on  a  self-righteous  foundation,  and  should 
have  been  entirely  lost  and  undone,  had  not 
the  mercy  of  God  prevented.  Sometime  in 
the  beginning  of  winter,  1738,  it  pleased  God 
one  Sabbath  morning,  as  I  was  walking  out 
for  a  prayer,  to  give  me  on  a  sudden  such  a 
sense  of  my  danger,  and  the  wrath  of  God, 
that  I  stood  amazed,  and  my  former  good 
frames  presently  vanished.  From  the  view 
of  which  I  had  of  my  sin  and  vileness,  I  was 
much  distressed  all  that  day." 

Then  began  a  weary  struggle  of  months 
as  he  tried  by  voluntary  humility  and  by  in- 
creasing his  own  convictions  to  merit  God's 
pity  in  some  way.  The  only  result  was  a 
deepening  sense  of  his  own  unworthiness, 
helplessness  and  hopelessness.  Rebellious 
thoughts  against  God  arose.  He  was  espe- 
cially irritated  by  the  strictness  of  God's  law, 
by  the  fact  that  faith  alone  was  the  condition 
of  salvation,  by  his  inability  to  find  out  what 
faith  was  and,  especially,  by  the  sovereignty 
of  God.     At  last  he  writes : 

"I  was  brought  quite  to  a  stand,  as  finding 


DAVID    BRAINERD  29 

myself  totally  lost.  I  had  thought  many 
times  before  that  the  difficulties  in  my  way 
were  very  great :  but  now  I  saw  in  another  and 
very  different  light,  that  it  was  forever  im- 
possible for  me  to  do  anything  towards  help- 
ing or  delivering  myself." 

Then  it  was  (July  twelfth,  1739)  in  the 
same  place  where  God  had  begun  to  show 
Brainerd  his  own  heart,  that  he  was  given 
a  vision  of  God's  glory  and  grace.  It  was 
not  "any  external  brightness"  but  a  "new 
inward  apprehension  or  view  that  I  had  of 
God."  "My  soul  rejoiced  with  joy  unspeak- 
able to  see  such  a  God,  such  a  glorious  divine 
being:  and  I  was  inwardly  pleased  and  sat- 
isfied that  he  should  be  God  over  all  for  ever 
and  ever."  "Thus  God,  I  trust,  brought  me 
to  a  hearty  disposition  to  exalt  him,  and  to  set 
him  on  the  throne,  and  principally  and  ulti- 
mately to  aim  at  his  honour  and  glory  as  the 
King  of  the  universe."  "At  this  time  the  way 
of  salvation  opened  to  me  with  such  infinite 
wisdom,  suitableness  and  excellency,  that  I 
wondered  I  should  ever  think  of  any  other 
way  of  salvation.  I  wondered  that  all  the 
world  did  not  see  and  comply  with  this  way 
of  salvation, — entirely  by  the  righteousness  of 
Christ." 

Such  definite  and  supreme  devotion  to  the 
glory  of  God  and  such  entire  reliance  on  His 


30       HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

grace  through  Christ,  Brainerd  ever  after  re- 
garded as  the  essential  elements  and  marks  of 
true  religion.  His  last  religious  teaching  (at 
Boston)  was  devoted  to  vindicating  this  view 
in  opposition  to  current  views  of  the  way  of 
salvation,  which  he  considered  imtrue. 

In  September,  1739,  he  entered  Yale.  He 
went,  as  he  says,  "With  some  degree  of  re- 
luctance, fearing  lest  I  should  not  be  able  to 
live  a  life  of  strict  religion,  in  the  midst  of  so 
many  temptations."    But  he  adds: 

"I  enjoyed  considerable  sweetness  in  re- 
ligion, all  the  winter  following.  Yet,  owing 
to  hard  study,  and  to  my  being  much  exposed 
on  account  of  my  freshmanship,  as  I  had  but 
little  time  for  spiritual  duties,  my  soul  often 
mourned  for  more  time  and  opportunity  to  be 
alone  with  God."  "My  ambition  in  my 
studies  greatly  wronged  the  activity  and 
vigor  of  my  spiritual  life,  yet  God's  comforts 
principally  delighted  my  soul." 

He  broke  down  in  health  and  was  obliged 
to  leave  college  for  a  time.  He  returned 
shortly  before  the  "Great  Awakening"  began 
in  New  Haven.  Brainerd  was  naturally  very 
much  interested  and  very  enthusiastic  in  this 
movement.  He  was  one  of  a  little  band  of 
students  who  had  associated  for  mutual  as- 
sistance in  spiritual  things.  Two  or  three  of 
these  were   together  just   after    one   of   the 


DAVID    BRAINERD  31 

tutors  had  conducted  prayers.  Some  one 
asked  Brainerd's  opinion  of  the  tutor's  piety. 
Brainerd  replied, 

"He  has  no  more  grace  than  this  chair." 
The  remark  was  overheard  and  reported. 
Those  present  were  required  to  reveal  the 
speaker  and  the  person  spoken  of.  Brainerd 
was  directed  to  make  a  public  apology.  He 
felt  himself  ill-used  in  the  method  pursued 
and  in  this  requirement  of  a  public  apology 
for  something  said  in  private  conversation. 
He  refused.  He  also  persisted  in  attending  a 
religious  meeting  when  forbidden.  He  was 
expelled.  It  was  toward  the  close  of  his  jun- 
ior year.  Although  he  never  changed  his 
opinion  regarding  the  treatment  he  had  re- 
ceived, he  later  sorely  bewailed  his  own  "spir- 
itual pride"  and  "the  imprudences  and  inde- 
cent heats"  of  this  period.  He  destroyed  the 
diaries  covering  it.  He  made  ample  apologies 
subsequently,  and  offered  every  possible  repa- 
ration; friends  and  even  ministerial  councils 
interceded  on  his  behalf.  It  is  an  interesting 
revelation  of  the  strength  of  feeling  and  the 
sternness  of  the  times,  that  although  he  was 
one  of  the  purest  characters  and  the  finest 
scholars  in  the  college,  the  authorities  refused 
to  allow  him  to  take  his  degree  with  his  class. 
Thenceforward  he  pursued  his  studies  un- 
der  direction  of  ministerial  friends  in  that 


32       HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

region.  His  minute  self-scrutiny  continued. 
Ebbs  in  the  tide  of  his  religious  feelings  often 
gave  him  distress.  He  perceived  more  and 
more  "the  wickedness  of  my  heart."  He  be- 
wailed particularly  the  stubbornness  of  his 
will  and  the  cursed  pride  of  his  heart.  But 
he  could  and  did  rejoice  almost  continually 
in  God.  "I  seldom  prayed  without  some  sen- 
sible joy  in  the  Lord."  He  found  himself 
growing  in  his  desire  and  purpose  to  live  for 
God  only. 

Now  appears  a  new  burden  in  his  prayers. 
He  begins  "To  wrestle  earnestly  for  others, 
for  the  kingdom  of  Christ  in  the  world  and 
for  dear  Christian  friends."  "I  found  myself 
willing,  if  God  should  so  order  it,  to  suffer 
banishment  from  my  native  land  among  the 
Heathen,  that  I  might  do  something  for  their 
salvation,  in  distresses  and  deaths  of  any 
kind."  He  prays  "For  special  grace  for  my- 
self to  fit  me  for  special  services," — for  min- 
isterial qualifications.  His  soul  is  drawn  out 
"for  multitudes  of  souls."  Hours  together 
and  sometimes  whole  days  were  spent  in 
prayer.     On  these  days  he  fasted  also. 

Brainerd  was  examined  and  licensed  by  a 
coimcil  of  Congregational  ministers  at  Dan- 
bury,  Connecticut,  July  twenty-ninth,  17-12. 
The  next  three  months  were  spent  in  visiting 
friends   and  preaching  at  various   points  in 


DAVID    BRAINERD  33 

that  region.  Although  sometimes  depressed, 
he  was  generally  happy  in  his  work  and  in 
the  sweet  fellowship  which  he  enjoyed  with 
ministers  and  others.  His  services  were 
much  sought  after. 

"The  honorable  Society  in  Scotland  for 
Propagating  Christian  Knowledge"  upon  so- 
licitation from  America  agreed  to  maintain 
two  missionaries  among  the  Indians.  The 
Rev.  Ebenezer  Pemberton  of  Xew  York,  the 
Rev.  Aaron  Burr  of  Newark,  Xew  Jersey,  the 
Rev.  Jonathan  Dickinson  of  Elizabeth,  New 
Jersey,  and  others  were  requested  to  act  as 
correspondents  of  the  Society,  and  to  take  im- 
mediate supervision  of  the  work.  They  had 
difficulty  in  finding  suitable  men  who  were 
Avilling  to  imdertake  the  mission.  Their  at- 
tention was  directed  to  David  Brainerd,  and 
they  prevailed  on  him  to  accept  the  appoint- 
ment. The  original  plan  was  to  send  him  to 
the  Forks  of  the  Delaware.  But  conflicts  be- 
tween the  whites  and  Indians  in  that  region 
led  them  to  send  him  to  a  place  then  known  as 
Kaunaumeek,  in  the  woods  half  way  between 
Stockbridge  in  Massachusetts  and  Albany  in 
New  York  and  about  twenty  miles  from  each. 

Before  going,  he  sold  property  and  devoted 
it  to  educating  a  young  man  for  the  ministry. 
This  was  in  some  respects  the  saddest  period 
in  his  existence.    He  had  external  trials.    He 


34       HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

was  in  poor  health;  he  was  much  exposed  to 
cold  and  storm  on  long  and  lonely  rides.  His 
bed  was  a  pallet  of  straw  on  the  floor  of  a 
wretched  hut  of  a  Scotch  woman;  then  he  re- 
moved to  a  rude  wigwam  among  the  Indians 
and  finally  to  a  log  house,  built  largely  with 
his  own  hands.  He  rarely  and  with  great 
difficulty  obtained  suitable  food;  he  was  cut 
off  not  only  from  friends  but  for  weeks  from 
anyone  with  whom  he  could  converse  in  Eng- 
lish, except  his  Indian  interpreter.  But  these 
things  were  as  nothing  compared  with  the 
melancholy  that  preyed  upon  him.  The  im- 
pression of  his  own  utter  unworthiness  and 
unfitness  for  any  service  to  God  or  man  almost 
drove  him  to  despair.  But,  terrible  as  were 
the  storms,  the  anchor  of  his  hope  did  not 
slip. 

There  were  seasons  of  brightnes  and  calm. 
His  heroism  and  consecration  came  out  in 
unflagging  efforts  to  promote  his  own  spir- 
itual life,  to  fit  himself  for  service  and  to 
confer  immediate  benefit  upon  those  to  whom 
he  was  sent.  The  Indians  showed  some  ap- 
preciation of  his  services  and  he  thought  he 
saw  some  marks  of  grace.  But  after  a  year's 
labor,  he  decided  that  he  ought  to  seek  an- 
other field  because  of  the  small  number 
within  reach  and  the  fact  that  they  could  be 
ministered  to  by  Mr.  Sargeant  at  Stockbridge, 


DAVID    BRAINERD  35 

to  which  place  Brainerd  had  persuaded  them 
to  remove. 

The  correspondents  consenting,  he  set  out 
for  his  original  destination.  He  visited 
among  New  England  friends  on  the  way. 
East  Hampton  on  Long  Island,  then  regarded 
as  one  of  the  most  desirable  churches,  was 
urgent  to  obtain  his  services.  Millington, 
near  his  old  home,  also  wanted  him.  But 
turning  his  back  upon  comfort  and  friends  he 
set  out  for  his  long  and  lonely  horse-back 
ride,  through  what  seemed  to  him  a  "desolate 
and  hideous  country,"  to  find  a  new  home 
among  the  savages  on  the  Delaware. 

He  arrived  about  the  middle  of  May  on 
the  Delaware  where  Easton,  Pennsylvania, 
now  stands.  Soon  after,  on  June  eleventh,  he 
was  ordained  by  the  Presbytery  of  New  York 
at  Newark,  New  Jersey.  He  preached  to 
frontier  settlements  of  whites  in  the  region 
of  the  Forks,  as  well  as  to  the  Indians.  He 
was  better  in  health  and  his  spiritual  experi- 
ences were  happier.     In  July  he  wrote : 

"Last  year  I  longed  to  be  prepared  for  a 
world  of  glory,  and  speedily  to  depart  out  of 
this  world ;  but  of  late  all  my  concern  almost 
is  for  the  conversion  of  the  heathen :  and  for 
that  end  I  long  to  live." 

But  the  number  of  Indians  permanently  in 
the  neighborhood  was  small.    Having  learned 


36       HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

that  the  Indians  were  more  numerous  on  the 
upper  Susquehanna,  he  set  out  in  October  to 
visit  them.  He  was  accompanied  by  his 
friend,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Byram,  and  three  In- 
dians. It  was  a  journey  of  a  hundred  and 
fifty  miles  through  an  unbroken  wilderness 
over  great  and  rugged  mountains.  It  was  the 
most  dangerous  traveling  any  of  them  had 
ever  seen.  Brainerd's  horse  broke  her  leg 
and  had  to  be  shot.  It  is  characteristic  that 
he  found  even  in  this  accident  occasion  for 
thanksgiving  because  he  himself  escaped  un- 
hurt. Four  days  were  spent  among  the  In- 
dians near  the  present  site  of  Berwick,  Colum- 
bia County,  Pennsylvania.  Returning  to  the 
Forks  he  spent  the  winter  there  and  there- 
about. 

In  early  spring  (1745)  he  went  for  a 
month  into  New  England  to  secure  a  col- 
league and  raise  money  to  support  him.  He 
hoped  in  this  way  to  escape  the  dreadful  lone- 
liness and  to  increase  the  efficiency  of  the 
work.  He  was  ready  to  contribute  largely 
from  his  own  scant  salary.  But  he  was 
unsuccessful. 

He  was  planning  to  remove  to  the  Susque- 
hanna, and  in  May  made  his  second  journey 
thither.  It  was  again  a  hard  trip  and  in- 
volved much  exposure.  Brainerd  lay  sick  for 
a  week  in  the  rude  hut  of  a  trader.     He  ex- 


DAVID    BRAINERD  37 

plored  the  settlements  of  Indians  for  a  hun- 
dred miles  along  the  river,  and  sought  to 
interest  them  in  Christian  truth.  But  he  was 
much  discouraged  by  the  general  indifference 
and  gross  idolatry.  He  came  back  worn  out, 
sick  and  greatly  depressed.  He  feared  that 
the  money  spent  in  his  support  was  wasted,  i, 
and  began  to  think  of  resigning  his  commis- 
sion since  he  seemed  to  himself  to  be  an  un- 
profitable servant.  Of  this  time  he  wrote: 
"As  my  body  was  very  feeble,  so  my  mind 
was  scarce  ever  so  much  damped  and  dis- 
couraged about  the  conversion  of  the  Indians, 
as  at  this  time." 

A  week  after  his  return  to  the  Forks,  how- 
ever, he  started  for  a  place  called  Cross- 
weeksung,  now  Crosswicks,  near  Burlington, 
New  Jersey,  where  he  heard  Indians  were  to 
be  found.  He  visited  churches  in  Pennsyl- 
vania and  New  Jersey  on  the  way.  He  ar- 
rived at  Crosswicks  on  the  nineteenth  of  June, 
but  again  found  the  Indians  much  scattered. 
His  first  audience  consisted  of  a  few  women 
and  children.  But  they  were  interested  and 
spread  the  annoimcement  of  the  meeting  next 
day  over  a  radius  of  ten  or  fifteen  miles.  The 
audiences  grew  rapidly.  Brainerd  preached 
daily,  sometimes  twice  a  day.  In  the  inter- 
vals of  public  service  he  spoke  in  private 
with  those  interested.    He  reports:  "God  was 


38        HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

pleased  to  put  upon  them  a  spirit  of  awaken- 
ing and  concern  for  their  souls,  and  sur- 
prisingly to  engage  their  attention  to  divine 
truths."  But  Brainerd  "Had  passed  through 
so  considerable  a  series  of  almost  fruitless 
labors  and  fatigues"  and  "his  rising  hopes 
had  been  so  often  frustrated  among  these  poor 
pagans"  that  he  "could  not  believe,  and 
scarcely  dared  to  hope"  that  "God  would  give 
any  special  success  to  his  labors." 

After  two  weeks  of  almost  incessant 
preaching  and  teaching,  worn  out  but  happy, 
Brainerd  returned  by  slow  stages  to  the 
Forks.  There,  a  few  days  later,  he  baptized 
his  first  Indian  converts — Moses  Finda  Fau- 
taury,  his  wife  and  their  children.  This 
man,  about  fifty  j'^ears  of  age,  had  been  his 
interpreter  for  more  than  a  year.  He  knew 
Indian  lore  and  English  well.  He  had  been 
a  hard  drinker.  At  first  indifferent,  he  had 
come  imder  deep  religious  impressions  about 
a  year  before,  and  for  six  months  had  ap- 
peared to  Brainerd  "another  man"  and  he 
hoped  "a  new  man."  "His  heart  echoed  to 
the  soul-humbling  doctrines  of  grace." 

It  was  the  sheaf  of  first  fruits.  The 
transaction  deeply  impressed  the  other  In- 
dians. But  what  was  far  more  important  to 
Brainerd,  this   man,  having  now  an  experi- 


DAVID    BRAINERD  39 

mental  as  well  as  an  intellectual  apprehension 
of  the  truth,  became  a  thoroughly  sympa- 
thetic medium  for  Brainerd's  discourses.  He 
also  himself  exhorted  the  Indians, 

By  the  first  of  August  (1745)  Brain erd 
was  back  at  Crosswicks.  He  was  eagerly 
welcomed.  The  interest  previously  kindled 
had  not  cooled,  with  his  coming  it  burst  into 
fresh  flame.  Indians,  and  Avhites  too,  came 
from  far.  While  some  of  the  latter  were 
impressed,  of  others  to  their  shame  Brainerd 
reports, 

"They  behaved  more  indecently  than  any 
Indians  I  have  ever  addressed." 

Among  the  Indians  old  and  young  were 
led  to  cry  out, 

"Outturn  Mauhalummet — Outturn  Mauhal- 
ummet" — "Have  mercy  upon  me!  Have 
mercy  upon  me !" 

The  influence  that  swept  over  the  audience 
seemed  to  Brainerd  like  "the  irresistible 
force  of  a  mighty  torrent."  Ood's  manner 
of  working  appeared  to  him  clearly  super- 
natural and  almost  independent  of  means. 
But  he  reports  also  the  effective  theme — 
Christ  crucified.     His  testimony  is: 

"It  was  remarkable  from  time  to  time  that 
when  I  was  favored  with  any  special  freedom 
in  discoursing  of  the  ability  and  willingness 


40       HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

of  Christ  to  save  sinners  and  the  need  in 
which  they  stood  of  such  a  Saviour,  there  was 
then  the  greatest  appearance  of  divine  power 
in  awakening  numbers  of  secure  souls,  pro- 
moting convictions  begun,  and  comforting  the 
distressed." 

Almost  daily  some  souls  found  peace.  The 
converts  sought  to  help  and  guide  others.  At 
the  end  of  three  weeks  he  baptized  twenty- 
five,  fifteen  adults  and  ten  children. 

In  September  he  went  to  the  Forks  and 
from  there  with  only  his  interpreter  visited 
many  Indian  settlements  along  the  Susque- 
hanna. He  suffered  much  from  the  hard- 
ships of  the  wilderness  and  more  from  the 
indifference  and  gross  idolatry  of  the  savages, 
but  came  back  somewhat  encouraged. 

The  region  of  Crosswicks  had  now  become 
his  home.  The  remarkable  interest  kept  up 
through  the  winter,  and  Brainerd  was  inces- 
sant in  preaching,  catechising  and  visiting. 
He  set  about  establishing  a  permanent  com- 
munity, raised  and  paid  off  more  than  eighty 
pounds  of  debts  on  the  land  of  the  Indians, 
established  a  school  and  in  the  spring  set  the 
Indians  to  work  clearing  for  a  new  town — 
Bethel — located  near  Cranberry,  New  Jersey, 
whither  they  and  he  soon  removed.  The  com- 
munity now  numbered  one  hundred  and  fifty. 


DAVID    BRAINERD  41 

He  baptized  altogether  nearly  one  hundred, 
about  one  half  of  whom  were  adults.  Many 
others  were  impressed  and  imder  instruction. 
The  changed  life  of  some  who  had  been 
openly  vicious,  and  the  rapidity  with  which 
both  religious  and  secular  knowledge  was 
acquired,  astonished  all. 

But  he  did  not  forget  the  Indians  at  the 
Forks  and  on  the  Susquehanna.  In  mid- 
winter he  took  half  a  dozen  converts  to  the 
former  place  and  held  meetings.  In  August, 
1746,  he  made  his  fourth  trip  to  the  interior 
Pennsylvania  Indians.  It  was  a  terrible  ex- 
perience extending  over  a  month.  He  was  so 
weak  as  scarcely  to  be  able  to  sit  on  his  horse 
at  times.  The  evening  dews  of  the  forest 
chilled  him,  night-sweats  and  hemorrhages 
wasted  him.  From  very  weariness  sleep 
sometimes  forsook  him.  Still  he  traveled 
and  preached. 

It  was  late  in  September  when  he  finally 
got  back  to  Bethel.  He  tried  to  maintain 
services.  Wlien  too  weak  to  go  to  the  meet- 
ing place  he  gathered  his  Indians  at  his  hut 
and  spoke  from  chair  or  bed. 

In  November  he  started  for  New  England, 
hoping  to  recuperate  among  his  friends.  But 
he  got  only  to  Elizabeth,  Ncav  Jersey,  where 
he  was  iU  through  the  winter.     It  was  the 


42       HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

last  of  May,  1747,  when  he  reached  his  des- 
tination, the  home  of  Jonathan  Edwards  at 
Northampton,  Massachusetts.  A  physician 
pronounced  his  case  hopeless,  but  advised  con- 
tinued horse-back  riding.  He  went  to  Bos- 
ton, where  notable  ministers  and  others  vis- 
ited him.  He  aroused  great  interest  in  Indian 
missions.  Returning  to  the  house  of  Edwards 
(to  whose  daughter  Jerusha  he  was  be- 
trothed) and  busy  still  with  voice  and  pen  in 
his  Master's  work,  he  calmly,  even  joyfully, 
awaited  his  change.  The  purpose  of  his  life 
here  and  the  hope  of  life  hereafter  breathe  in 
one  of  his  last  utterances: 

"My  heaven  is  to  please  God,  and  glorify 
Him,  and  to  give  all  to  Him  and  to  be  wholly 
devoted  to  his  glory — ^that  is  the  heaven  I 
long  for." 

He  fell  asleep  Friday,  October  ninth,  1 747, 
in  the  thirtieth  year  of  his  age. 

Brainerd's  story  contains  elements  of  pro- 
found sadness.  Ill  health  and  melancholy 
temperament  threw  dark  shadows  on  his  path. 
It  can  scarcely  be  questioned  that  the  type  of 
piety  he  cultivated,  in  common  with  the  best 
people  of  his  day,  was  excessively  introspec- 
tive. As  he  became  actively  concerned  in  the 
salvation  of  others,  he  escaped  largely  from 
the  self-torture  of  earlier  days. 


DAVID    BRAINERD  43 

But  this  dark  background  brings  out  his 
gaining  qualities.  Always  weak  and  often 
suffering,  he  shrank  from  no  service  however 
hard.  He  so  jealously  guarded  each  moment 
and  so  fully  expended  each  atom  of  strength 
that  he  accomplished  what  would  have  been 
prodigous  tasks  for  a  well  man.  In  a  single 
year  he  rode  over  four  hundred  miles  on 
horse-back,  beside  all  his  preaching,  counsel- 
ing and  studying. 

His  splendid  devotion  appears  in  the  fact 
that,  although  he  was  of  unusual  intellectual 
ability  and  tastes,  personally  attractive  and 
delighting  in  congenial  friends,  possessed  of 
some  pri\;ate  means  and  sought  by  eager  con- 
gregations, he  deliberately  chose  and  contin- 
ued in  the  isolation  and  loneliness,  the  low- 
liness and  hardship  of  work  among  savages. 

Brainerd's  chief  end  was  to  glorify  God, 
and  in  God  he  found  rare  joy — even  here. 
Hours  and  days  of  meditation  and  prayer 
were  not  only  the  means  of  his  spiritual 
power  but  the  seasons  of  his  greatest  happi- 
ness. Even  upon  the  blackest  pool  of  self- 
reproach,  the  fair  lilies  of  adoration  and  trust 
are  found.  Upon  the  darkness  of  his  deepest 
discouragement,  there  rose  a  glorious  morn- 
ing of  great  and  blessed  success.  His  path 
shone  more  and  more  unto  the  perfect  day. 


44       HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

The  note  of  pity  is  swallowed  up  in  the  song 
of  thanksgiving  to  God,  who  giveth  the  vic- 
tory through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

[It  is  interesting  that  so  introspective  a  life  as  that 
of  David  Brainerd  should  have  impressed  itself  indel- 
ibly upon  young  men,  as  is  shown  by  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  Brainerd  Evangelical  Society  in  1832  in 
Lafayette  College.  The  original  object  of  this  society 
was  to  cultivate  a  missionary  spirit.  Of  late  it  is 
allied  to  the  group  of  college  Young  Men's  Christian 
Associations.  On  August  first,  1904,  the  forty-third 
missionary  from  its  membership  started  for  China. 

On  December  sixth,  1894,  the  Brainerd  Society 
dedicated  a  neat  marble  monument,  five  feet  high,  at 
Martin's  Creek,  Pennsylvania,  seven  miles  north  of 
Easton,  on  the  spot  on  which  David  Brainerd  built 
the  first  cabin  for  his  sole  use.  The  inscription  on 
the  west  side  reads, 

"Erected  by  the  Brainerd  Society  of  Lafayette 
College,  1894." 

The  inscription  on  the  south  side  reads, 

"A  few  rods  north  of  this  spot  David  Brainerd 
erected  his  missionary  cabin,  December  sixth.  1744, 
in  which  a  part  of  his  memorable  'Journal'  was 
written." — Eds.] 


CHAPTER    III. 

A  FIONEER   OF  THE   OLD   "SOUTHWEST," 
GmEON  BLACKBURN,  D.D. 

1772-1838. 

By  Edgar  A.  Elmore,  D.D. 

GiDKON  Blackburn  was  a  pioneer.  He 
was  born  with  this  blood  in  his  veins.  He  had 
a  part  in  the  "great  deeds  of  a  border  peo- 
ple." He  was  one  of  those  early  Presby- 
terian preachers  of  whom  it  has  been  said, 

"Wherever  one  of  these  settled  he  first 
prayed,  then  preached,  built  a  church,  a 
school  house,  and  spent  the  rest  of  his  life 
praying,  preaching,  teaching,  and  on  occasion 
fighting." 

He  Avas  born  in  the  only  part  of  Virginia 
where  "dissenters"  were  encouraged  to  settle 
by  the  intolerant  churchmen  of  those  early 
days — that  was  the  frontier  settlements  on 
the  west  of  the  Blue  Ridge,  where  they  might 
be  for  a  defence  against  the  bloody  incursions 
of  the  Indians.  Dr.  Baird  tells  us  that  from 
1729  to  1750  twelve  thousand  Scotch-Irish 
came  annually  to  our  shores  from  Ulster. 

4.^ 


46       HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

Many  of  them  turned  southward  to  find 
homes  in  the  valley  of  Virginia — "a  people 
bringing  little  money,  but  strong  hands  and 
stout  hearts  and  divine  principles,  to  improve 
their  own  condition,  and  to  bless  the  land  that 
gave  them  a  home."  Augusta  Count}''  was 
settled  almost  entirely  by  Scotch-Irish,  and 
here  on  the  frontier,  "amid  a  bold,  hardy, 
austere  people,"  Gideon  Blackburn  was  born 
in  the  year  1772. 

It  was  a  good  time  to  be  born.  A  new 
spirit  was  in  the  air.  The  great  continental 
movement  across  the  mountains  had  begun. 

"It  had  taken  the  Americans  over  a  cen- 
tury and  a  half  to  spread  from  the  Atlantic 
to  the  Alleghanies.  In  the  next  three  quar- 
ters of  a  century  they  spread  from  the  Alle- 
ghanies to  the  Pacific.  In  doing  this  they  not 
only  dispossessed  the  Indian  tribes  but  they 
won  the  land  from  the  European  owners." 

In  1769  William  Bean  had  built  the  first 
cabin  in  the  State  of  Tennessee.  In  1770 
the  van  of  Presbyterian  immigration  from 
Pennsylvania,  Maryland  and  the  Carolinas  en- 
tered the  same  State.  In  1772  Samuel  Adams 
at  a  public  meeting  in  Boston  moved  that  a 
"committee  of  correspondence  be  appointed 
to  state  the  rights  of  the  colonies" — "the  step 
that  fairly  organized  the  Revolution." 

The  same  year  the  "Watauga  Association" 


GIDEON    BLACKBURN  47 

along  the  head-waters  of  the  Tennessee  River 
"adopted  a  written  constitution,  the  first  ever 
adopted  west  of  the  mountains,  or  by  a  com- 
munity composed  of  American  freemen."  In 
1774  the  first  Continental  Congress  assem- 
bled, in  1775  the  battles  of  Lexington  and 
Bunker  Hill  were  fought,  and  the  Mecklen- 
burgh  Presbyterians  in  North  Carolina  de- 
clared "America  should  be  free."  It  was  in 
such  a  time  Gideon  Blackburn  was  born. 

He  came  of  fighting  stock.  General  Black- 
burn being  his  grandfather.  His  father's 
name  was  Robert,  and  his  mother  was  a 
Richie.  They  were  poor,  but  Christian ;  from 
them  he  received  his  Scotch-Irish  blood  and 
a  Presbyterian  training.  He  had  robust  health 
and  a  mind  of  more  than  usual  promise.  An 
unmarried  uncle  on  the  mother's  side,  Gideon 
Richie,  generously  helped  him  to  get  an  edu- 
cation, though  himself  only  a  day  laborer. 
He  was  converted  at  the  age  of  fifteen. 

While  young  his  family  was  caught  in  the 
movement  that  was  carrying  many  families 
into  Tennessee.  This  immigration  was  un- 
like that  of  any  other  State  in  the  Union. 
There  were  no  roads  through  the  moimtains. 
Not  until  the  year  1776  was  a  wagon  seen  in 
Tennessee.  The  pilgrims  journeyed  mostly 
on  foot,  with  a  horse  or  two  to  carrj'^  the  older 
women  and  children  and  "a   few  necessary 


48        HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

things,  such  as  cooking  utensils,  salt,  seed 
corn,  medicine,  wearing  apparel,  and  some 
meal  or  flour." 

In  Washington  Coimty,  Tennessee,  Gideon 
Blackburn  came  under  the  influence  of  two 
men  who  were  to  educate  and  fit  him  for  his 
life  work.  One  was  the  Rev.  Samuel  Doak, 
D.D.,  "the  apostle  of  learning  and  religion 
in  the  Southwest,"  Educated  at  Princeton, 
and  carrying  a  diploma  signed  by  John 
Witherspoon,  he  preferred  a  field  on  the  fron- 
tier "and,  tramping  through  Virginia  and 
driving  before  him  an  old  flea-bitten  gray 
horse  loaded  with  a  sackful  of  books,  crossed 
the  Alleghanies  and  came  down  the  blazed 
trails  to  the  Holston  Settlements,"  there  to 
organize  Salem  Church  and  establish  Mar- 
tin's Academy  (now  Washington  College), 
"the  first  literary  institution  in  the  Mississippi 
Valley."  This  was  the  man  also  who,  when 
Shelby  Campbell  and  Sevier  assembled  their 
men  at  the  Sycamore  Shoals  to  march  on  the 
King's  Mountain  campaign,  to  strike  the  blow 
which  was  to  turn  the  tide  in  the  war  of  the 
Revolution,  met  them  there  to  offer  prayer 
for  their  success,  and  give  them  as  their 
watchword,  "The  sword  of  the  Lord  and  of 
Gideon." 

Under  this  patriot,  missionary,  scholar, 
young   Blackburn  almost   completed  his   lit- 


GIDEON    BLACKBURN  49 

erary  course.  Then,  owing  to  the  removal  of 
his  family  some  fifty  miles  westward,  he 
finished  his  education  and  fitted  himself  for 
the  ministry  under  Dr.  Robert  Henderson, 
pastor  of  the  Hopewell  Church,  at  Dandridge, 
Tennessee,  and  a  preacher  of  such  power  and 
eloquence  as  to  become  a  mighty  inspiration 
to  him  in  the  power  of  speech  which  later 
characterized  his  ministry.  He  was  licensed 
to  preach  by  the  Presbytery  of  Abingdon  in 
1792. 

To  the  ordinary  man  facing  his  work  it 
was  not  a  pleasing  prospect.  There  was  no 
Home  Mission  Board  to  appeal  to,  for  not 
till  1802  did  the  General  Assembly  appoint 
a  "Standing  Committee  on  Missions."  He 
had  no  money,  but  few  books,  no  church  or- 
ganized to  call  him.  There  was  only  the 
frontier,  of  which  some  one  has  said: 

"It  is  the  edge  of  civilization,  and  rough 
and  shaggy  enough  it  is,  as  edges  are  apt 
to  be.  It  is  the  battle  ground  where  men  and 
nature  meet  to  fight  it  out.  Ah !  and  the 
men  have  hard  times  there,  I  can  tell  you. 
They  have  to  turn  to  and  use  every  bit  of 
stuff  that  is  in  them  or  they  get  the  worst  of 
the  conflict.  But  nature  is  a  friendly  foe. 
When  she  has  proved  them  she  grows  kind. 
The  trees  fall,  the  stumps  come  out  of  the 
ground,  every  year  the  work  tells  more  and 


50        HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

more,  and  the  frontier  is  pushed  further  and 
further  away." 

Add  to  this  the  Indians  resisting  all 
progress,  striking  at  every  exposed  point;  no 
family  safe  vmless  near  a  fort;  "the  war- 
like borderers,  the  restless,  reckless  hunters" ; 
the  incoming  of  new  people;  the  constant 
struggle  with  the  Indians,  "developing  traits 
of  cunning,  fierceness  and  cruelty,  as  well  as 
courage  and  adroitness";  the  hunger  and 
struggle  for  land,  as  shown  by  the  "hardy, 
dogged  farmers,  Calvinistic  in  faith.  God- 
fearing in  practice,  building  their  cabins, 
clearing  their  farms  from  the  everlasting 
forests,  and  by  dint  of  grim  tenacity  dis- 
placing the  Indians  and  making  homes  for 
their  children  in  the  wilderness" — and  you 
have  a  picture  of  the   life  he  was  facing. 

Yet  how  well  fitted  he  was  for  such  a  field 
of  labor.  He  was  a  part  of  such  a  life.  He 
had  grown  up  in  it.  He  was  accustomed  to 
its  every  hardship.  He  knew  the  people, 
understood  their  ways  of  looking  at  things, 
shared  in  their  hopes  and  fears  and  plans. 
He  was  not  afraid  of  danger,  or  of  the  hon- 
orable poverty  of  the  frontier.  He  had  a 
love  of  adventure,  and  was  ready  to  lead  a 
military  expedition  if  necessary,  as  he  did 
sometimes.  He  was  a  born  leader,  and  above 
all  he  had  the  true  spirit  of  a  missionary. 


GIDEON    BLACKBURN  51 

The  scattered,  endangered  people  without  the 
bread  of  life  was  all  the  call  he  needed  to 
begin  the  ministr3\ 

He  found  his  first  field  of  labor  by  march- 
ing with  a  company  of  soldiers  to  defend  a 
fort,  threatened  by  Indians,  some  forty  miles 
away,  where  Maryville,  Tennessee,  is  now 
located. 

With  hunting  shirt,  rifle  and  knapsack,  as 
well  as  with  Bible  and  hymn  book,  he  went 
forth  to  preach  to  soldiers  and  settlers. 
Near  the  fort  at  Maryville  he  built  two  log 
houses  in  1794,  one  for  a  church  and  one  for 
his  residence.  To  this  he  brought  his  young 
wife,  whom  he  had  married  in  1793.  Then 
began  a  most  arduous  and  self-denying  min- 
istry. As  everybody  was  poor  and  strug- 
gling, and  he  received  scant  support  from  the 
people,  it  was  necessary  for  him  to  cultivate 
his  farm  for  a  living.  ]\Iany  of  his  sermons 
were  prepared  by  taking  inkhorn  and  paper 
to  the  field,  and  jotting  down  the  thoughts 
that  came  while  busy  with  hoe  or  plow. 
He  worked  by  day  and  studied  by  night,  until 
his  people  could  do  more  for  his  support. 

The  settlements  of  people  clustered  about 
the  forts  for  protection.  He  went  from  fort 
to  fort,  under  the  escort  of  soldiers,  and  often 
in  great  peril,  preaching  and  teaching  either 
in   the   forts   or   under   the   trees.      Intense, 


52        HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

earnest,  courageous,  believing  in  the  Word  of 
God  implicitly,  anxious  for  the  souls  of  men, 
and  possessing  a  wondrous  natural  eloquence, 
his  preaching  found  great  acceptance.  The 
people  flocked  to  hear  him  when  it  was  known 
that  he  was  to  preach.  We  soon  find  him 
preaching  to  two  organized  churches.  New 
Providence  at  ]\Iaryville,  and  Eusebia  ten 
miles  away,  both  of  which  still  exist,  and 
are  sending  forth  streams  of  influence.  In 
these  churches  his  ministry  was  greatly 
blessed. 

"He  kept  himself  not  only  on  familiar 
terms,  but  in  exceedingly  kind  relations  with, 
all  his  people  and  exerted  a  powerful  and 
most  benign  influence  in  forming  their  char- 
acters. He  took  special  pains  both  in  pri- 
vate and  public  to  make  them  well  acquainted 
with  the  Bible  and,  by  accustoming  them  to 
frequent  meetings  for  devotion,  he  taught 
them  to  cultivate  both  the  gift  and  spirit  of 
prayer,  thus  rendering  many  of  them,  at  least, 
at  once  intelligent  and  spiritually  minded 
Christians." 

But  while  pastor  of  these  two  churches  his 
parish  was  wherever  new  settlements  were 
forming.  He  was  constantly  preaching  in 
the  regions  round  about.  Several  churches 
were  organized  as  a  result  of  these  outside 
labors,  so  that  we  find  him   (1797)   uniting 


GIDEON    BLACKBURN  53 

with  Carrick^  Henderson  and  Ramsey  to  or- 
ganize Union  Presbytery,  the  strongest  Pres- 
bytery now  in  the  Synod  of  Tennessee.  Alert, 
active,  sensitive  to  all  the  life  about  him, 
deeply  impressed  with  the  needs  of  the  peo- 
ple, and  a  sturdy  defender  of  the  faith,  he 
was  a  good  Presbyter,  who  laid  deep  and  well 
the  foundations  of  Presbyterianism  amid  the 
valleys  of  East  Tennessee.  He  ministered  to 
this  people  for  sixteen  years. 

Not  satisfied  with  the  increasing  work 
among  the  white  settlers,  his  heart  soon  be- 
gan to  go  out  to  the  Indians  in  the  region 
about  him.  The  Cherokees  were  the  moun- 
taineers of  their  race.  They  "dwelt  among 
the  blue  tipped  ridges  and  lofty  peaks  of  the 
Southern  Alleghanies,  in  the  wild  picturesque 
region  where  the  present  States  of  Tennessee, 
Alabama,  Georgia  and  the  Carolinas  join  one 
another.  Their  towns  stretched  from  the 
high  upland  regions  to  the  warm  coast  of  the 
low  country.  Each  village  stood  by  itself  in 
some  fertile  river  bottom,  surrounded  by 
apple  orchards  and  fields  of  maize,  for  the 
Cherokees  were  more  industrious  than  their 
northern  neighbors,  and  lived  by  tillage  and 
agriculture  as  much  as  by  hunting.  They 
were  a  bright  and  intelligent  race,  and  better 
fitted  to  follow  the  white  man's  road  than  any 
other  Indians." 


54       HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

As  to  Dr.  Blackburn's  work  with  this  peo- 
ple, this  is  his  own  story: 

"I  settled  in  that  part  of  the  State  called 
Blount  County  when  the  Cherokees  were  en- 
gaged in  a  bloody  and  destructive  war  with 
our  frontiers.  As  this  circumstance  fre- 
quently called  out  the  youths  of  my  charge 
in  defence  of  their  country  and  exposed  them 
to  the  vices  attached  to  military  life,  I  chose 
at  some  times  to  go  with  them,  and  was 
thereby  led  into  the  causes  of  the  savage  and 
wretched  state  of  those  Indians.  From  that 
moment  my  mind  began  to  be  agitated  with 
the  question,  Can  nothing  be  done  with  this 
people.''  Is  it  impossible  they  should  be  civ- 
ilized and  become  acquainted  with  the  gos- 
pel }  Some  rays  of  hope  would  flash  upon  my 
mind  when  I  reflected  they  were  of  the  same 
race  with  ourselves. 

"It  was  evident  that  a  plan  must  be  laid 
with  expectations  of  having  to  combat  igno- 
rance, obstinacy,  and  strong  prejudices.  I 
conceived  it  therefore  necessary  to  prepare 
the  mind  by  the  most  simple  ideas,  and  by  a 
process  which  would  associate  civilization 
with  religious  instruction,  and  thus  gradually 
prepare  the  rising  race  for  the  more  solemn 
truths  of  religion,  and  flt  this  strong  minded 
and  high  spirited  people  eventually  to  become 
American  citizens,  and  a  valuable  part  of  the 
Union. 


GIDEON    BLACKBURN  55 

"This  subject  became  frequently  the  ob- 
ject of  request  at  the  throne  of  grace  until 
1799.  That  year  I  introduced  the  subject 
to  the  Presbytery  of  Union,  but  found  many 
embarrassing  difficulties.  The  year  following 
I  laid  a  plan  for  a  missionary  society  in  that 
county,  with  a  special  reference  to  this  ob- 
ject. The  scarcity  of  money  and  the  poverty 
of  the  people  in  that  newly  settled  country 
were  such  that  I  was  compelled  to  give  up  the 
attempt.  In  1803  I  came  to  General  Assem- 
bly as  a  delegate  hoping  I  might  find  some 
method  of  bringing  the  subject  before  that 
body.  For  this  purpose  I  had  drawn  up  the 
outlines  of  a  plan  for  the  education  of  Indian 
children. 

"I  presented  this  plan  to  the  'Committee 
of  Missions,'  and  was  requested  to  undertake 
its  execution,  and  two  hundred  dollars  were 
given  for  its  support,  and  to  engage  my  ser- 
vices as  a  missionary  for  two  months. 

"On  my  return  to  Tennessee  I  collected 
four  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  and  some 
books.  I  had  several  interviews  with  the 
chiefs  of  the  nation,  taking  care  not  to 
promise  anj^thing  in  the  performance  of 
which  I  could  not  exceed  the  promise,  as  a 
single  failure  would  have  destroyed  my  credit 
and  ruined  the  design.  In  October  a  council 
of  two  thousand  Indians  assembled,  including 


56       HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

all  the  chiefs.  I  received  their  approbation 
in  writing,  with  a  declaration  that  they  would 
send  their  children  and  assist  in  fixing  a  place 
for  the  school. 

"A  place  on  Highwassee  River  was  chosen, 
and  a  school  house  and  one  for  the  teacher 
erected.  The  school  house  was  so  con- 
structed that  it  might  serve  the  children  to 
eat  in  and  be  comfortable  for  the  lodging  of 
the  males.  The  females  were  appointed  to 
sleep  in  the  master's  family.  I  was  remark- 
ably fortunate  in  the  choice  of  a  master.  He 
was  a  man  of  prudence,  good  sense  and  piety, 
with  a  heart  fully  set  on  the  work.  The 
school  was  opened  in  1804,  with  twenty-one 
children.  The  order  of  the  day  for  the 
school  is: — the  children  rise  and  pray  and 
wash,  then  the  school  opens  by  reading  the 
Scriptures  first  and  public  prayer;  then  en- 
gaged on  lessons  until  breakfast;  then  an 
hour  for  recreations,  and  again  engaged  from 
nine  to  twelve;  play  two  hours,  then  in  school 
till  evening.  In  evening  have  spelling  les- 
sons and  close  by  singing  hymns  and  prayer. 
The  children  were  all  neatly  clothed,  mostly 
in  striped  cotton  or  plain  linen.  The  first 
principles  of  religion  as  contained  in  the 
Shorter  Catechism  were  early  taught,  many 
hymns  of  praise  were  committed  to  memory. 
They  were  taught  to  sing   plain  melodious 


GIDEON    BLACKBURN  57 

tunes  with  a  great  deal  of  ease  and  sweet- 
ness." 

The  principal  chiefs  of  the  nation,  many 
Indians  and  two  or  three  hundred  white  peo- 
ple, with  General  Smith,  Colonel  Meigs  and 
Governor  Sevier,  met  on  the  Highwassie 
River  to  make  a  treat3^  Dr.  Blackburn  thus 
describes  the  attendance  of  his  school: 

"Then  I  attended  with  my  school,  consist- 
ing of  twenty-five  children.  Figure  to  your- 
self twenty-five  little  savages  in  the  forest, 
all  seated  in  a  large  canoe,  the  teacher  in 
one  end  and  myself  at  the  other,  steering 
our  canoe  down  the  stream  about  twenty 
miles.  See  the  little  creatures  neatly  dressed 
in  homespun  cotton  (presented  them  by  the 
females  of  my  white  congregation),  their 
hearts  beating  with  the  anticipation  of  their 
expected  examination,  frequently  reviewing 
their  lessons,  and  then  joining  in  anthems  of 
praise  to  their  Redeemer. 

"Thus  we  arrived  at  the  place  of  treaty. 
It  was  a  large  bower  in  the  midst  of  a  de- 
lightful grove,  where  the  school  was  intro- 
duced, marching  in  procession  between  the 
open  ranks  of  white  and  red  spectators. 
Each  scholar  read  such  part  as  requested,  the 
different  classes  spelled  a  number  of  words 
without  the  book,  specimens  of  their  writing 
and  ciphering  were  shown,  and  the  exhibition 


58       HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

closed  by  the  children  singing  a  hymn  or  two 
committed  to  memory  with  a  clear,  distinct 
voice.  The  scene  was  very  impressive,  many 
shed  tears  plentifully.  The  Governor  (Sev- 
ier), a  hardy  veteran,  who  had  often  braved 
the  danger  of  war  in  the  same  forest,  said 
to  me: 

"  'I  have  often  stood  unmoved  amidst 
showers  of  bullets  from  Indian  rifles,  but  this 
effectually  unmans  me.  I  see  civilization 
taking  the  ground  of  barbarism,  and  the 
praises  of  Jesus  succeeding  the  war-whoop 
of  the  savage,' — all  the  time  tears  streaming 
down  his  face. 

"The  red  people  immediately  requested  a 
second  establishment  in  the  lower  districts  of 
the  nation,  and  by  the  twenty-sixth  of 
August  I  had  another  school  in  operation. 

"About  this  time  my  circumstances  were 
truly  embarrassing.  I  had  the  care  of  a  con- 
gregation among  the  white  people — generally 
poor.  I  had  also  a  rising  and  helpless  fam- 
ily for  which  provision  must  be  made,  and  by 
the  fatigues  and  being  exposed  to  cold,  hun- 
ger and  wet,  together  with  all  the  wretched- 
ness of  savage  accommodation  in  my  visits  to 
the  nation,  and  hard  labor  at  home,  I  was 
attacked  by  a  complaint  which  settled  in  one 
of  my  legs,  causing  much  pain.  INIy  schools 
were    increasing,    my    funds    exhausted,    my 


GIDEON    BLACKBURN  59 

credit  sinking,  and  my  health  to  all  appear- 
ances gone ;  but  in  1 806,  in  a  tour  through  the 
South,  I  collected  upward  of  fifteen  hundred 
dollars  and  was  relieved  of  my  affliction." 

In  1807  he  made  a  tour  through  the  north- 
ern States  and  collected  in  seven  months  over 
five  thousand  dollars,  with  books  and  clothes. 
He  preached  a  sermon  before  the  General 
Assembly,  for  which  he  received  a  vote  of 
thanks  from  the  Assembly. 

In  1808  and  1809  he  made  tours  of  seven 
and  twelve  weeks  through  the  Cherokee  Na- 
tion, and  was  much  encouraged  with  their 
progress  towards  civilization.  Seven  years 
he  gave  himself  to  this  service,  and  would 
gladly  have  continued  it,  but  failing  health 
and  his  own  pecuniary  embarrassment  grow- 
ing out  of  his  work  constrained  him  to  retire 
from  the  field. 

His  labor  had  not  been  in  vain  among  the 
Indians.  He  had  developed  agriculture,  also 
the  formation  of  civil  government,  with  a 
constitution,  legislature  and  laws.  He  had 
taught  them  how  to  build  roads.  In  one  of 
his  letters  towards  the  close  of  his  work  he 
gave  these  facts,  showing  advance  of  Chero- 
kees  towards  civilization:  Population,  12,395; 
negro  slaves,  583;  cattle,  20,000;  horses, 
6,100;  hogs,  19,600;  sheep,  1,037;  grist 
mills,   13;   sawmills,   3;  saltpetre  works,  3; 


60       HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

powder  mill,  1;  wagons,  50;  plows,  500; 
spinning  wheels,  1,600;  looms,  464;  and  49 
silversmiths,  and  in  the  schools  four  or  five 
hundred  had  been  taught  to  read  the  English 
Bible,  and  several  persons  had  been  received 
as  hopeful  Christians. 

In  1810  he  gave  up  the  work,  and  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly  not  being  able  to  find  a  man 
to  replace  him,  the  work  among  the  Indians 
passed  into  the  hands  of  the  American  Board 
of  Commissioners  for  Foreign  Missions. 

Owing  to  continued  impaired  health,  and 
the  growing  needs  of  his  family,  he  resigned 
also  in  1810  the  charge  of  the  New  Provi- 
dence church,  which  he  had  continued  all 
through  his  work  with  the  Indians,  and  set- 
tled eventually  at  Franklin,  eighteen  miles 
south  of  Nashville,  Tennessee. 

Here  he  took  charge  of  the  Harpeth  Acad- 
emy, and  for  twelve  years  the  core  of  his 
work  was  teaching.  He  was  not  a  finished 
scholar,  but  was  strong  in  logic,  rhetoric,  men- 
tal and  moral  philosophy. 

He  was  a  good  disciplinarian,  yet  governed 
largely  by  moral  suasion,  appealing  to  such 
motives  as  were  calculated  to  develop  manly 
and  religious  character.  In  addition  to  the 
ordinary  duties  as  teacher  he  superintended 
the  studies  of  several  young  men  preparing 
for  the  ministry,  thus  laboring  to  increase  the 


GIDEON    BLACKBURN  61 

number  of  ministers  so  greatly  needed  in  the 
Southwest. 

Though  thus  engaged  in  teaching  he  by  no 
means  gave  up  preaching,  for  he  soon  had 
five  preaching  points,  a  rotation  circuit  of 
fifty  miles,  to  vphich  he  gave  his  Saturdays 
and  Sabbaths.  He  found  religious  life  at  a 
low  ebb,  but  was  soon  greatly  blessed  here 
too  in  his  ministry.  Churches  were  organized, 
and  at  his  first  communion  service  three  thou- 
sand persons  were  present,  and  forty-five 
members  added  to  the  church.  His  vacations 
were  given  to  evangelistic  labors,  and  in  the 
great  revivals  held  in  the  early  part  of  the 
century  multitudes  were  converted  under  his 
preaching.  Throughout  this  period  he  was 
still  the  home  missionary,  reaching  out  to 
regions  beyond. 

In  1823  he  accepted  a  call  to  the  pastorate 
of  the  Presbyterian  church  of  Louisville, 
leaving  his  son,  the  Rev.  John  N.  Blackburn, 
as  his  successor  at  Franklin.  After  a  fruitful 
pastorate  of  four  years  at  Louisville  he  ac- 
cepted the  presidency  of  Centre  College,  Dan- 
ville, Kentucky.  For  three  years  he  held  this 
office,  performing  an  immense  amount  of 
ministerial  labor  in  addition  to  the  duties  of 
president. 

In  1830  he  resigned  and  removed  to  Ver- 
sailles, Kentucky,  where  in   addition  to   his 


62       HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

care  of  the  church,  he  became  the  agent  for 
the  Kentucky  State  Temperance  Society, 
which  afforded  him  ample  opportunity  to 
make  burning  appeals  in  the  interest  of  tem- 
perance. 

He  removed  in  1833  to  Illinois,  but  never 
had  charge  of  a  church.  He  became  agent 
for  the  Illinois  College  to  raise  funds  in  the 
eastern  States.  While  engaged  in  this  work 
he  conceived  the  idea  of  establishing  a  the- 
ological seminary  in  Illinois.  This  plan  he 
did  not  live  to  carry  out,  but  after  his  death 
such  an  institution  was  established  at  Carlin- 
ville,  Illinois,  and  named  for  him.  It  was 
under  the  control  of  New  School  branch  of 
the  Church.  In  1838,  at  the  age  of  sixty- 
six,  he  died  at  Carlinville,  of  dysentery, 
though  he  had  suffered  for  some  time  from  a 
cancerous  affection  on  the  lip  and  a  severe 
fall  on  the  ice,  which  had  confined  him  to  his 
bed  for  six  months  before  death  came. 

Dr.  Blackburn  had  eleven  children,  seven 
sons  and  four  daughters.  Two  of  the  sons 
became  useful  ministers,  and  one  died  while 
preparing  to  preach.  The  degree  of  D.D. 
was  conferred  on  him  by  Greenville  College 
in  1818. 

In  person  he  was  of  military  bearing, 
stood  six  feet  two  inches;  was  well-propor- 
tioned;   had    strongly   marked    features;    he 


GIDEON    BLACKBURN  63 

had  a  large  head,  fair  complexion ;  high  fore- 
head; eyes  large,  full,  light  blue,  or  rather 
grayish;  a  firm  but  benignant  expression; 
dark  hair,  parting  in  the  middle  and  reaching 
almost  to  his  shoulders.  Although  a  fine- 
looking  man,  yet  the  only  picture  ever  taken, 
of  him  was  secured  unawares  by  some  friends 
in  Boston,  who  had  an  artist  sketch  him  while 
they  kept  him  busy  talking  on  his  "only 
hobby,  the  Southwest."  This  picture  was  a 
grief  to  him,  as  he  did  not  approve  of 
pictures. 

In  his  manner  he  "was  of  the  old  school, 
easy,  gentle,  mild,  courteous,  affable,  but 
always  dignified."  There  was  always  some- 
thing of  reserve  about  him.  No  one  could 
treat  him  with  familiarity.  His  bearing  in- 
spired reverence.  At  times  he  could  be  severe 
and  haughty.  One  time  General  Jackson  at- 
tempted to  assign  a  company  of  young  men 
that  Blackburn  himself  had  raised  and  led 
to  the  army  to  the  command  of  an  officer  that 
Blackburn  had  promised  them  they  should 
not  serve  under. 

"Thereupon  a  difficulty  arose.  General 
Jackson  was  imperious,  the  Doctor  was  firm. 
It  came  to  words,  high  words ;  many  feared  it 
would  end  in  blows.  The  Doctor  was  as 
haughty  in  his  bearing  as  the  General  was  im- 
perious and  threatening."     But  he  was  calm. 


64.       HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

collected  and  firm,  and  he  carried  his  point; 
and  then  Avith  a  bow  of  great  dignity  he 
ended  by  saying, 

"General,  that  is  all  that  I  ever  asked,  and 
now  with  the  greatest  confidence  I  commit 
these  noble  young  men  to  your  care  whose 
parents  have  committed  them  to  me." 

"They  parted  with  mutual  civilities,"  and 
Jackson  spoke  of  him  ever  afterwards  as  my 
"much  respected  friend.  Dr.  Blackburn."  It 
is  said  that  when  Jackson  was  president  Dr. 
Blackburn  sent  a  personal  letter  to  him  by  a 
friend,  to  urge  him  to  fulfil  a  promise  that 
he  had  made  to  confess  Christ — thus  showing 
how  close  their  friendship  had  become. 

But  Blackburn  was  first  of  all  a  preacher. 
He  was  a  master  of  assemblies,  he  had  all  the 
elements  of  a  natural  orator — a  tall  and  com- 
manding figure,  a  strong  personality,  dignity 
in  bearing,  musical  voice,  appropriate  gest- 
ures, intense  earnestness,  a  passion  for  souls, 
absolute  confidence  in  the  Bible  as  the  Word 
of  God,  and  such  a  vivid  power  of  description 
as  to  make  his  audiences  forget  they  were 
hearing,  and  act  as  if  they  were  seeing.  He 
preached  without  notes. 

His  rule  in  preaching  was, 

"Get  your  head,  heart  and  soul  full  of  your 
subject,  and  then  let  nature  have  its  OAvn 
way." 


GIDEON    BLACKBURN  65 

"His  sermons  were  generally  didactic  and 
analogical  in  the  beginning,  but  highly  de- 
scriptive, and  abounding  in  appeals  to  the 
imagination,  conscience  and  hearts  of  his 
hearers  towards  the  close."  Though  his  ser- 
mons were  an  hour  and  a  half  long  he  held 
his  audiences  to  the  end. 

He  had  many  qualities  that  fitted  him  to  be 
a  pioneer  home  missionary.  He  was  a  con- 
scientious, earnest  pastor,  he  delighted  to 
preach  the  gospel;  this  led  him  to  "range" 
and  make  long  preaching  tours.  We  hear  of 
him  in  many  different  States,  everywhere 
pleading  with  men  to  be  saved. 

He  had  the  spirit  of  a  reformer,  freeing  his 
own  slaves  and  sending  them  to  Liberia,  and 
using  his  influence  to  lead  others  to  do  the 
same.  He  was  an  ardent  advocate  of  tem- 
perance. His  religion  was  of  the  active  type, 
not  the  introspective.  "Doing  good"  was  his 
motto.     He  lived  for  the  future,  not  the  past. 

He  influenced  men  who  held  public  office. 
He  was  frequently  invited  to  preach  to  the 
legislature  of  his  State,  and  often  consulted 
by  those  in  authority.  In  that  period,  when 
great  States  were  emerging  from  the  wilder- 
ness, and  calling  for  the  equipments  of  Chris- 
tian civilization,  when  school  houses  and 
churches  had  to  be  built,  when  standards  of 
right  living  had  to  be  set  up  and  maintained 


66       HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

under  adverse  conditions,  when  the  moral  and 
religious  character  of  hundreds  of  communi- 
ties had  to  be  shaped,  this  man  wrought.  His 
is  one  of  the  influences  that  has  "leavened  the 
nation."  He  spared  not  himself,  but  devoted 
every  gift  to  his  Master's  use. 

His  work  remains.  Many  of  the  churches 
he  established  still  abide  in  strength.  The 
foundations  he  laid  are  still  there,  the  prin- 
ciples he  taught  still  shape  the  lives  of  those 
coming  after  him.  He  labored  not  in  vain 
for  the  old  "Southwest." 


Daniel  Baker,  D.D.,   1791-1857 


CHAPTER    IV. 

A  WINNER  OF  SOULS, 
DANIEL  BAKER,  D.D. 

1791—1857. 
By  Henry  S.  Little,  D.D.* 

The  key-note  to  this  wonderful  man's  life 
was  expressed  on  his  deathbed  in  1857: 
"I  want  this  epitaph  carved  on  my  tomb: 

Here  lies  Daniel  Baker — 
Preacher  of  the  gospel — 
A  sinner  saved  by  grace. 

"Remember/*  he  added,  "a  sinner  saved  by 
grace." 

Daniel  Baker  was  born  in  Midway,  Geor- 
gia, August  seventeenth,  1791.  He  was  born 
again  when  fourteen  years  of  age.  He  joined 
the  church  April  nineteenth,  1812.  He  en- 
tered the  junior  class  at  Princeton  in  1813. 
He  died  at  Austin,  Texas,  December  tenth, 
1857,  at  the  age  of  sixty-seven. 

He  lived  a  boy's  life,  with  its  longings  for 
the  good,  and  sometimes  the  practice  of  the 

*  Synodical  missionary  in  Texas.    See  p.  78. 
67 


68       HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

bad, — at  least  one  would  say  so  if  his  morbid 
diary  can  be  trusted.  For  years  he  depended 
too  much  on  frames  of  mind.  He  tried  to 
live  an  impossible  life,  sometimes  in  the  most 
delightful  frames  of  mind  and  often  berating 
himself  for  depressions  that  needed  physical 
exercise  and  a  physician.  He  needed  to 
learn,  as  a  young  man  and  a  college  student, 
to  cast  his  frames  of  mind,  along  with  his  sins, 
on  Jesus  and  then  to  go  right  on  with  the 
Master's  work  and  be  hopeful  whether  happy 
or  not. 

In  his  college  diary  he  writes: 

"In  the  review  of  the  past  year  I  find  many 
things  to  weep  and  lament  over ;  many  follies, 
many  sins  and  backslidings  to  lay  me  low  in 
repentance  and  humility,  and  I  likewise  find 
many  things  for  adoring  love  and  augmented 
gratitude  to  God.  I  have  experienced  many 
vicissitudes  of  heavenly  affections  during  the 
past  year ;  sometimes  the  light  of  God's  coun- 
tenance beamed  upon  me,  which  let  in  sweet 
comfort  and  joy  into  my  soul;  at  other  times, 
under  the  hidings  of  God's  countenance,  un- 
der the  heavy  pressure  of  temptations  and 
afflictions,  my  enjoyments  were  dried  tip  and 
I  went  sorrowing.  Sometimes,  but  especially 
about  the  first  of  spring,  I  had  clear  manifes- 
tations of  the  love  of  God,  brighter  hopes  of 
a  joyful  immortality.     At  other  times  heavy 


DANIEL    BAKER  69 

clouds  hung  over  my  soul  and  shed  a  dismal 
gloom  on  all  things.  I  began  to  imagine  all 
my  former  experiences  to  be  mere  delusions; 
that  I  had  never  sincerely  loved  my  God;  my 
views  were  low,  my  hopes  almost  extin- 
guished; but,  blessed  be  God,  even  in  these 
seasons  of  darkness  and  distress  God  did  not 
utterly  forsake  me;  some  glimmerings  from 
above  would,  now  and  then,  cast  a  bright 
though  transient  gleam  into  my  soul,  and  I 
was  enabled  to  persevere." 

It  may  be  remarked  here  that  up  to  this 
time  and  for  years  after  Dr.  Baker  lived  in 
the  swamps  of  Georgia  and  was  of  a  sallow, 
slender,  sickly  appearance,  giving  no  promise 
of  the  health  and  vigor  he  afterwards  pos- 
sessed. It  would  be  well  for  those  who  be- 
wail their  spiritual  darkness;  their  fearful 
apprehensions  in  regard  to  things  of  earth 
and  heaven;  their  manifold  prayers,  fastings 
and  efforts  for  God  without  result,  to  see  if 
the  cause  of  their  unhappiness  and  inefficiency 
does  not  lie  in  their  want  of  bodily  health. 
The  man  who  stands  in  the  pulpit,  broad- 
chested,  in  evident  possession  of  health  and 
happiness,  exerts  a  living  force  upon  an  audi- 
ence, even  apart  from  what  he  has  to  say. 
Dr.  Baker's  college  melancholy  was  the  result 
of  over-study,  under-exercise  and  indiscreet 
eating.     It  was  all  wrong  to  charge  God  with 


70       HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

it.  Student  sins  like  all  other  sin  are  pun- 
ished directly  and  indirectly,  and  invariably, 
by  the  laws  of  health. 

Afterwards  Dr.  Baker's  incessant  travels 
and  preaching  developed  and  strengthened 
his  constitution  to  a  remarkable  degree.  He 
became  the  happiest  and  most  hopeful  man 
living.  His  capacity  for  labor  became  almost 
unlimited — bounded  by  consideration  for  his 
hearers,  not  for  himself.  And  there  is  never 
a  word  of,  "Oh,  dear  me !"  in  his  grand  life. 
As  to  his  untiring  energy,  it  was  remarked  of 
him  by  a  business  man,  himself  by  no  means 
lacking  in  this  quality, 

"Dr.  Baker's  energy  would  be  worth  to  me 
ten  thousand  dollars  a  year." 

Owing  to  his  health,  his  cheerfulness  was 
also  never  impaired;  in  fact,  it  amounted  all 
the  year  round  to  steady  joyousness.  No  one, 
in  or  out  of  his  famil}'^,  can  remember  even 
a  momentary  cloud  of  depression  on  his  sunny 
brow  or  a  breath  of  petulance  on  his  smiling 
lips.  He  may  have  been  angry  at  times  but 
never  for  an  instant  cross.  Into  the  fun  of 
children  he  entered  as  cordially  as  them- 
selves. Of  all  "croaking,"  as  he  termed  it,  he 
had  a  cordial  dislike.  AVhatever  else  may  be 
said  of  him,  since  Adam  left  Paradise  a  hap- 
pier man  never  walked  the  earth.  It  need 
scarce    be    said,    his    energy,    cheerfulness, 


DANIEL    BAKER  71 

buoyancy,  had  their  fountain-head  in  his  faith 
in  God,  manifested  in  Christ;  but  their  deep, 
wide,  unobstructed  channels  were  in  his 
healthy  body. 

When  Dr.  Baker  entered  Princeton  Col- 
lege he  found,  of  the  one  hundred  and  forty- 
six  students,  only  six  who  professed  to  be 
Christians,  and  only  two  who  seemed  to  care 
much  about  it.  With  these  two  he  instituted 
a  prayer  meeting  which  became  an  object  of 
ridicule.  This  meeting  grew  into  a  great  re- 
vival, and  of  the  fifty  students  then  converted 
twenty  became  ministers  of  the  gospel.  Two 
of  them  have  been  distinguished  bishops  of 
the  Episcopal  Church;  one  has  been  a  presi- 
dent of  a  college;  another,  according  to  Brit- 
ish print,  is  "the  greatest  divine  now  living." 
Another  has  become  famous  in  the  Sandwich 
Islands  as  a  missionary.  It  was  a  glorious 
work  of  grace,  and  verily  its  blessed  conse- 
quences will  not  only  run  along  down  the 
whole  stream  of  time,  but  will  not  lose  their 
traces  through  the  wide  ocean  of  eternity. 

In  1818  Dr.  Baker  took  pastoral  charge  of 
Harrisonburg  and  New  Erection,  Virginia, 
and  preached  in  all  the  villages  and  country 
round  about  with  wonderful  success.  Three 
years  later  he  was  called  to  the  Second 
Church  of  Washington,  D.  C,  where  he  had 
as  parishioners  President  John  Quincy  Adams 


72       HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

and  General  Andrew  Jackson.  Mr.  Adams 
never  failed  to  be  in  his  pew  on  the  Sabbath, 
and  was  a  most  attentive  listener.  This 
brought  the  Second  Church  into  notice,  and 
Mr.  Crawford,  the  Secretary  of  the  Treas- 
ury, and  Judge  Southard,  the  Secretary  of 
the  Navy,  each  took  a  pew.  The  meetings 
were  usually  well  attended  and,  although 
they  never  had  what  is  called  a  revival,  they 
had  what  might  be  called  heavenly  dew.  They 
had  professions  at  every  communion,  so  that 
when  Dr.  Baker  resigned  in  the  spring  of 
1828  the  number  of  communicants  had  in- 
creased from  thirty-nine  to  one  hundred  and 
forty-two,  not  including  those  who  had  died 
or  been  dismissed. 

Having  removed  to  Savannah,  Dr.  Baker 
writes  to  his  former  people  at  Washington  as 
follows : 

"After  laboring  in  your  midst  a  little  more 
than  six  years,  with  much  comfort  to  myself, 
and  I  hope  some  usefulness  to  you,  I  have 
withdrawn.  I  am  now  far  away ;  another  city 
is  the  place  of  my  residence;  another  people 
the  people  of  my  charge.  Was  this  of  my 
own  seeking?  It  was  the  providence  of  God 
— most  remarkably  the  providence  of  God. 
The  field  of  usefulness  open  to  me  in  this 
place  is  very  extensive,  and  very  promising. 
JSIy  congregation  is  decidedly  the  largest  in 


DANIEL    BAKER  73 

Savannah,  and  embraces  a  great  portion  of 
the  wealth  and  intelligence  of  the  city.  I 
am  happy  to  add,  it  embraces  much  piety  too, 
much  more  than  I  had  expected.  Our 
prayer-meetings  are  crowded;  I  have  a  very 
flourishing  Female  Bible  class — the  present 
number  is  forty-six.  There  are  two  things 
which  now,  in  review,  afford  me  satisfaction 
— a  consciousness  that  I  endeavored  to  be. 
faithful  whilst  I  was  over  you  in  the  Lord, 
and  a  conviction  that  my  labors  were  not  in 
vain  in  the  Lord.  O,  that  the  number  had 
been  a  thousand  times  greater!  But  what 
a  shade  is  that  which  comes  over  my  soul? 
What  pang  was  that  which  even  now  I  feel.'* 
O,  it  is  the  recollection  that  some,  that  many 
too,  heard  me  preach,  heard  me  .invite,  heard 
me  warn,  heard  me,  even  with  tears,  entreat 
them  to  attend  to  the  great  concern,  and  all 
without  profit.  My  preaching  with  them  is 
now  over;  my  warnings  are  now  ended,  my 
work  is  now  done;  the  volume  of  my  pastoral 
labors  is  now  closed,  is  sealed,  is  laid  up  by 
the  throne  of  God  against  the  judgment  day. 
God  have  mercy  upon  them,  and  save  them 
from  the  death  that  never  dies." 

One  secret  of  Dr.  Baker's  success  is  his 
craving  for  souls.  It  was  his  one  great  busi- 
ness here  to  win  men  to  Christ. 

In  a  great  revival  in  Savannah  twenty  were 


74       HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

added  to  Dr.  Baker's  church.  This  being 
noised  abroad,  meetings  sprang  up  all  about. 
Dr.  Baker  was  in  great  demand.  At  Gillison- 
ville  sixty  were  hopefully  converted;  two  of 
these  entered  the  gospel  ministry.  Shortly 
after  this  he  attended  a  meeting  in  Grahams- 
ville,  South  Carolina,  and  also  in  a  certain 
church  on  May  River,  both  of  which  were 
greatly  blessed.  But  a  meeting  held  about 
this  time  in  Beaufort,  South  Carolina,  was  of 
all  others  most  remarkable.  It  continued  to 
increase  in  interest.  The  crowds  which  at- 
tended were  very  great.  About  two  hundred 
and  fifty  were  hopefully  converted,  of  whom 
many  were  heads  of  families,  and  individuals 
from  fourteen  to  eighty-six  years  of  age. 
Eight  devoted  themselves  to  the  ministry. 
One,  a  talented  lawyer,  grasped  Dr.  Baker's 
hand  with  strong  emotion  and  exclaimed, 

"O,  Mr.  Baker,  I  have  an  ocean  of  joy! 
What  would  have  become  of  me  if  you  had 
not  come  here?" 

Another,  seeing  Dr.  Baker  pass  by  the 
door  of  his  house,  rushed  out,  and  seizing  him 
by  the  hand  said, 

"Only  to  think,  that  that  Name  which  I 
used  to  blaspheme  is  now  my  only  hope !" 

The  Beaufort  Gazette  summed  up  the  meet- 
ing as  follows: 

"The    Rev.    Daniel   Baker   has   been   with 


DANIEL   BAKER  75 

us  for  some  time,  and  never,  surely,  since  the 
days  of  the  Apostles,  has  more  fervid  zeal, 
or  ardent  piety,  or  untiring  labor  been  de- 
voted by  a  Christian  minister  to  his  cause. 
For  ten  imwearied  days,  from  morning  until 
nine  at  night,  have  we  heard  the  strongest  and 
most  impassioned  appeals  to  the  heads  and 
hearts  of  his  hearers.  All  that  is  terrible  or 
beautiful;  all  that  is  winning  or  appalling; 
all  that  could  steal  and  charm  and  soothe  the 
heart,  or  shake  the  confidence  of  security  and 
command  its  attention  to  the  truths  of  relig- 
ion, we  have  seen  pressed  upon  the  commu- 
nity with  an  earnestness,  energy  and  ajFec- 
tionate  persuasiveness  almost  irresistible.  The 
effect  no  one  can  conceive  who  was  not 
present." 

A  whist  club  received  one  of  Dr.  Baker's 
notices.  With  many  sneers  and  much  ridicule 
they  accepted  the  invitation.  Eight  of  a 
party  of  eleven  were  converted,  and  one  is 
now  a  bishop  in  the  Episcopal  Church.  Eleven 
ministers  came  out  of  this  revival,  six  of 
whom  exchanged  the  profession  of  law  for 
the  ministry. 

This  meeting  determined  Dr.  Baker  to  be- 
come an  evangelist.  He  resigned  his  charge 
at  Savannah,  received  a  complimentary  gift 
of  five  hundred  dollars  from  them,  and 
preached  his  farewell  sermon  in  1831. 


76       HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

As  an  evangelist  his  most  remarkable  tour 
embraced  twelve  protracted  meetings  in 
twelve  consecutive  weeks,  those  hopefully  con- 
verted averaging  forty-five  for  each  meeting. 
They  were  mostly  held  in  South  Carolina. 

The  limits  of  this  sketch  forbid  me  to  fol- 
low this  great  evangelist  through  Ohio  and 
Kentucky,  where  he  had  great  results  in  win- 
ning men  to  Christ.  We  have  seen  him  at  his 
best  and  at  his  accustomed  power  with  God 
for  men.  There  will  be  many  stars  in  the 
crown  of  his  rejoicing  at  that  day  when  God 
makes  up  his  jewels. 

We  must  now  follow  Dr.  Baker  to  Texas, 
where  his  great  life-work  was  done.  In  1838 
he  heard  the  Rev.  John  Breckenridge,  D.D., 
make  a  masterly  plea  for  Texas,  and  after 
it  was  done,  Dr.  Breckenridge  laid  his  hand 
upon  Dr.  Baker  and  said, 

"Brother  Baker,  you  are  the  man  for 
Texas." 

At  repeated  times  others  made  a  like  asser- 
tion, and  so  he  was  led  to  think  that  the  hand 
of  the  Lord  was  in  it  and  he  must  go.  But 
after  starting  he  could  not  refrain  from  hold- 
ing meetings  by  the  way,  and  one  hundred 
and  fifteen  were  converted.  At  Memphis  he 
met  his  old-time  friend  and  parisliioner,  Gen- 
eral Jackson,  from  whom  he  bore  a  letter  of 
introduction  to  General  Houston.     From  New 


DANIEL   BAKER  77 

Orleans  he  went  by  boat  to  Galveston,  arriv- 
ing in  1840.  The  town  had  grown  in  two 
years  from  three  houses  to  three  hundred. 
A  Presbyterian  church  had  been  organized  a 
short  time  before  his  arrival.  There  were 
then  six  Presbyterian  ministers  in  Texas. 
Sabbath,  February  third,  1840,  the  first  com- 
munion season  under  Presbyterian  control  on 
Galveston  Island  was  observed.  Four  were 
added  on  profession. 

On  April  third,  1840,  Dr.  Baker  was  pres- 
ent at  the  organization  of  Brazos  Presbytery 
in  the  Christman  school  house  at  Independ- 
ence Settlement,  the  first  Presbytery  organ- 
ized in  Texas.  At  the  first  meeting  of  the 
Presbytery  of  Brazos  the  building  of  a  col- 
lege was  suggested.  The  burden  of  securing 
means  for  it  fell  on  Dr.  Baker.  Six  different 
journeys  he  made  to  the  States  in  its  interest, 
and  he  was  wonderfully  successful.  Besides 
securing  the  gift  of  many  thousand  acres  of 
land  he  collected  one  hundred  thousand  dol- 
lars. The  details  of  these  wonderful  jour- 
neys as  recorded  in  his  published  memoirs  are 
full  of  romantic  and  thrilling  interest.  The 
self-denial  of  such  a  man  in  his  constant 
separation  from  his  family,  with  meagre  com- 
pensation, hardships  indescribable  and  hero- 
ism almost  unexampled,  places  him  among  the 
wonderful   men    of   the    past    century.     His 


78       HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

methods  were  his  own.  He  believed  in  the 
power  of  the  gospel.  This  he  preached  and 
then  made  his  appeal.  In  his  last  tour,  in- 
cluding eight  months  soliciting  for  the  col- 
lege^ he  won  seven  hundred  converts. 

"Lead  a  man  to  Christ  first  if  you  want 
him  to  say,  'The  half  of  my  goods  I  give  to 
the  poor.'  "  This  was  Dr.  Baker's  method, 
and  Austin  College,  Sherman,  Texas,  con- 
firms its  correctness. 

About  this  time  Dr.  Baker  wrote  a  letter, 
which  reads  as  follows: 

"I  have  been  to  Texas.  I  have  just  re- 
turned; and  so  well  pleased  am  I  with  what 
I  have  seen  and  heard  in  that  new  Republic, 
that  I  think  I  shall  make  it  my  home.  The 
lands  in  general  are  very  rich,  and  some  parts 
of  the  country  are  extremely  beautiful.  But 
what  is  more  important,  the  people  set  a  very 
great  value  upon  a  preached  gospel,  and 
come  out  wonderfully.  I  have  often  said,  on 
week  evenings  as  well  as  on  Sabbath  days. 
Where  do  all  these  people  come  from?  I 
think  the  associations  of  early  life  have  some- 
thing to  do  with  it;  a  mother's  prayers  and 
a  mother's  tears  are  not  forgotten.  More- 
over, there  seems  to  be  a  disposition  to  roll 
away  the  reproach  cast  upon  them,  that  they 
are  a  set  of  outlaws  and  demi-savages ;  and, 
besides,  you  know  that  what  is  scarce  is  much 


DANIEL   BAKER  79 

prized.  I  have  preached  in  places  where  no 
gospel  sermon  had  ever  been  preached  be- 
fore; and  I  have  seen  adults  who  have  not 
heard  a  single  discourse,  some  for  eight, 
some  for  twelve,  some  for  twenty  years.  I 
saw  a  lady  and  gentleman  who,  on  a  Sunday 
morning,  rode  eighteen  miles  to  church,  with- 
out having  any  certain  information  that  there 
would  be  preaching  that  day.  You  may  judge 
how  much  delighted  they  were  to  find  that  it 
was  a  communion  season,  and  that  there  was 
a  blessed  revival  of  religion  going  on.  Hav- 
ing both  of  them  been  professors  of  religion 
in  the  old  States,  I  trust  they  received  spirit- 
ual benefit  that  day.  I  will  not  enter  upon 
any  particulars;  suffice  it  to  say,  I  had  the 
pleasure  of  witnessing  several  precious  sea- 
sons of  refreshing  in  Texas,  and  had  the  sat- 
isfaction of  seeing  some  of  Austin's  colony 
brought  in.     Laus  Deo !" 

As  a  kind  of  accident  Dr.  Baker  visited 
Nashville,  Tennessee.  According  to  the  al- 
most imiversal  custom  of  the  West,  a  four 
days'  meeting  was  held  by  this  church  at  its 
communion  season.  On  the  occasion  Dr. 
Baker  accepted  an  invitation  to  assist  at  the 
communion.  After  Dr.  Baker's  second  ser- 
mon a  great  deal  of  solemnity  was  apparent 
through  the  congregation.  From  this  time 
there  was  no  diminution  of  the  interest  dur- 


80       HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

ing  his  stay  of  about  a  fortnight,  during 
which  he  preached  twenty-seven  times,  be- 
sides giving  exhortations  and  conversing  with 
those  who  attended  the  inquiry  meetings. 
Two  weeks  after  the  first  communion  it  was 
adjudged  expedient  and  proper  by  the  pastor 
and  session  to  hold  another,  when  about  forty 
were  admitted.  Although  the  special  meet- 
ings were  suspended  soon  after,  the  good 
spirit  that  was  kindled  seemed  to  remain  in 
the  church,  and  at  the  next  communion  an- 
other large  number  was  added,  making  a 
total  of  nearly  one  hundred  who  were  brought 
into  the  church  as  the  fruit  of  this  man's 
faithful  labors.  The  great  glory  of  this 
work  of  grace  was  its  genuineness  and  perma- 
nent effect  upon  the  church.  Years  after  its 
pastor  said  he  could  not  remember  one  who 
had  been  made  a  subject  of  discipline. 

In  fact,  if  not  in  office,  Dr.  Baker  was  the 
first  synodical  missionary  in  Texas.  The 
Indians  were  hostile  and  cruel.  The  distances 
were  vast.  He  suffered  exposure  and  fatigue. 
Coming  into  a  town  where  he  was  unknown, 
he  rang  his  own  bell,  beat  his  own  triangle, 
or  used  other  methods  personally  from  house 
to  house  to  gather  people  together.  At  first 
probably  the  audience  was  small,  but  after- 
wards no  house  would  hold  the  throngs  that 
came.  Doors  and  windows  were  removed  to 
permit  those  on  the  outside  to  hear.     With 


DANIEL    BAKER  81 

the  earth  for  a  bed  and  the  sky  for  a  roof 
this  man  of  God,  many  times  called  to  large 
churches  and  comfortable  salaries,  passed 
many  of  his  nights.  Often  wild  beasts  or 
wilder  men  threatened  his  life.  In  the  East 
faculties  and  students  of  colleges  helped  to 
pack  audiences  to  hear  him  preach,  and  hun- 
dreds of  them  were  born  again.  This  man 
was  all  things  to  all  men  that  he  might  save 
some.  To  a  man  of  the  world  it  must  have 
seemed  a  life  thrown  away;  but  he  gave  his 
splendid  capabilities  to  those  who  otherwise 
would  have  gone  to  the  bar  of  God  without 
hearing  the  gospel. 

The  writer  once  received  a  letter  saying: 

"I  want  to  commend  to  you  Rev.  ,  a 

dear,  good  brother,  a  spotless  man,  who  has 
never  succeeded  very  well  anywhere,  but  he 
is  just  the  man  for  Texas." 

Not  so  thought  Dr.  Baker.  Send  the  best 
to  home  mission  fields  and  let  good  men,  who 
don't  succeed,  stay  where  people  have  some 
church-going  habits. 

"Christ  gave  rmtil  He  felt  it,"  Dr.  Baker 
was  used  to  say.  "Do  you  give  until  you 
feel  it?" 

Holding  places  easily  supplied  was  not  to 
be  compared  with  laying  foundations,  so 
thought  Dr.  Baker.  He  believed  that  if  the 
heart  is  to  be  kept  in  healthy  working  con- 
dition   the   extremities  must   be   kept  warm. 


82       HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

The  reflex  influences  of  his  life  are  to  be  meas- 
ured by  the  hundred  thousand  dollars  east- 
ern churches  were  willing  to  give  him  for  his 
college.  He  lives  twice  who  lives  once  for 
home  missions.  To  use  Dr.  Baker's  own 
words : 

"Home  missionaries  have  no  beds  of  roses, 
but  they  have  wide  fields  of  usefulness.  They 
have  little  California  gold,  but  they  have 
precious  souls  which  as  jewels  are  safely 
casketed  for  eternity." 

Dr.  Baker  might  have  been  distinguished 
as  a  politician,  rich  as  a  financier,  famous  as 
a  scholar  or  teacher,  or  eminent  as  a  states- 
man, but  "they  that  turn  many  to  righteous- 
ness shall  shine  as  the  stars  for  ever  and 
ever." 

Deeply  indeed  did  his  spotless  life,  his 
abundant  labors  and  his  holy  influence  im- 
press the  people  of  Texas.  On  the  first  news 
of  his  death  the  legislature  in  both  of  its 
branches  adjourned,  though  in  a  thronged 
and  excited  session.  Fervent  and  eloquent  ad- 
dresses were  made.     One  said: 

"I  consider  the  death  of  Dr.  Baker  a  public 
calamity.  His  is  justly  entitled  to  rank  as 
one  of  Texas'  benefactors.  There  has  been 
scarcely  a  State  in  the  Union  but  has  heard 
his  eloquent  pleading  in  behalf  of  religion 
and  all  the  great  interests  of  society." 


Rev.   Tlioiiias  Siuitli  Williaiiisoii.   M.D.,    IH()()-1S7!) 


CHAPTER    V. 

♦ 

THE  PIONEER   AMONG  THE  SIOUX, 
REV.  THOMAS  S.  WILLIAMSON,  M.D. 

1800—1879. 

By  the  Rev.  John  P.  Williamson,  D.D. 

The  Rev.  Thomas  S.  Williamson,  M.D., 
labored  as  a  missionary  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  among  the  Sioux  or  Dakota  Indians 
for  forty-five  years,  dying  June  twenty- 
fourth,  1879.  When  he  entered  the  work  the 
Sioux  were  one  of  the  largest  and  most  savage 
tribes  on  the  continent,  among  whom  as  yet 
not  a  single  convert  had  been  made  to  Chris- 
tianity. When  he  died  he  left  behind  the 
largest  and  most  thoroughly  organized  mis- 
sions of  the  Presbyterian  Church  among  any 
tribe  of  Indians.  A  whole  Presbytery  of  In- 
dian churches  is  the  monument  that  stands  to 
his  memory. 

Dr.  Williamson  was  without  doubt  chosen 
of  God  for  this  work;  and  it  is  interesting  to 
notice  how  God  prepared  him  for  it.  He 
83 


84       HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

came  of  godly  ancestry  who  had  been  trained 
for  generations  to  the  conscientious  observ- 
ance of  God's  law.  His  father^  the  Rev. 
William  Williamson,  was  of  Scotch-Irish  de- 
scent and  a  Revolutionary  soldier,  who  at  the 
close  of  the  War  enlisted  in  the  army  of  the 
Lord  and  preached  Christ  for  over  forty 
years.  The  mother  of  the  Rev.  William  Will- 
iamson was  Anne  Newton,  a  near  relative  of 
Isaac  and  John  Newton.  Those  acquainted 
with  the  history  of  John  Newton  will  not  be 
surprised  to  learn  that  she  was  a  South  Caro- 
lina slave-holder.  Notwithstanding  this  she 
was  an  independent  thinker,  and  when  God 
in  His  providence  led  her  to  consider  the  bear- 
ings of  moral  law  upon  the  southern  institu- 
tion, she  freed  her  slaves;  and,  among  other 
things  which  she  did  to  help  them  start  out 
in  their  new  life,  she  gave  two  of  them  a  lib- 
eral education.  One  of  these  was  the  Rev. 
Benjamin  Templeton,  pastor  of  a  colored 
church  in  Philadelphia;  and  the  other,  John 
Templeton,  was  one  of  the  early  graduates  of 
Ohio  University,  and  afterwards  for  many 
years  a  successful  teacher  in  Pittsburgh, 
Pennsylvania. 

William  Williamson's  wife,  Mary  W. 
Smith,  was  a  woman  of  the  same  noble  and 
consecrated  spirit  as  his  mother.  Sitting  one 
morning  in  the  small  parsonage  of  the  Fair 


THOMAS  S.  WILLIAMSON         85 

Forest  Presbyterian  Church,  South  Carolina, 
a  baby  girl  in  her  arms  and  a  little  boy  at 
her  knee,  just  old  enough  to  prattle  and  drink 
in  his  mother's  feelings,  some  one  knocked 
at  the  door.  It  was  the  patrol,  who  imme- 
diately proceeded  to  read  to  her  the  order 
from  the  officers  of  the  district  that  she  must 
at  once  cease  instructing  her  slaves,  or  be 
prosecuted  according  to  law.  The  order  was 
not  unexpected  to  Mrs.  Williamson.  As  the 
minister's  wife,  the  community  felt  that  she 
must  not  be  treated  roughly.  So  every  other 
means  were  employed  to  dissuade  her  from 
continuing  her  instruction.  Near  and  dear 
neighbors  and  learned  expositors  of  law  had 
labored  in  vain  to  show  her  the  folly  of 
her  course.  So  something  had  to  be  done. 
As  early  as  1803  the  wise  men  of  the  South 
could  see  that  the  cannon  of  education  must 
be  muzzled,  or  it  would  blow  the  institution 
of  slavery  to  atoms.  But  in  Mrs.  William- 
son's eyes  God's  law  was  far  above  man's 
law.  So  the  patrol  had  hardly  shut  the  door 
when  she  said, 

"Thomas,  the  gospel  must  be  taught  to 
every  creature;  go  to  the  cabin  and  tell  thq 
children  to  come  to  school." 

Further  notices,  a  trial,  a  fine  followed. 
It  was  a  terrible  effort  for  the  faithful  offi- 
cers to  bring  the  law  down  thus  upon  a  lady 


86       HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

of  the  most  high  repute,  but  as  they  viewed 
it  the  salvation  of  the  country  depended  on 
it,  and  it  was  done.  The  immediate  result 
was  that  in  less  than  twelve  months  that  deli- 
cate mother,  with  baby  Jane  in  her  lap  was 
climbing  the  Alleghany  Mountains  on  horse- 
back. Just  ahead  was  her  good  husband  on 
another  horse,  with  little  Thomas  astride  be- 
hind him,  and  their  twenty-seven  negroes 
stringing  along  as  they  pleased — all  bound 
for  the  Ohio  River,  across  which  was  the  land 
of  liberty. 

The  strong-hearted  mother  was  not  spared 
to  Thomas  and  Jane  for  many  years,  but 
long  enough  to  impress  upon  their  hearts  her 
devotion  to  God's  law  and  the  love  of  Jesus 
for  all  men.  So  it  was  not  surprising  when 
her  two  children  reached  the  age  of  maturity 
in  1821,  knowing  that  slaves  had  been  left 
them  by  a  deceased  relative  in  South  Caro- 
lina, that  they  should  make  the  long  horse- 
back journey  thither  to  liberate  them  instead 
of  having  them  sold.  They  knew  the  value 
of  time,  and  the  money  would  have  given 
them  what  they  did  not  have — some  capital 
to  start  out  in  life.  But  these  losses  touched 
them  lightly.  The  trip,  however,  brought 
other  experiences  which  were  like  frigid 
blasts  to  their  tender  hearts.  As  they  neared 
the  old  stamping  ground  of  their  fathers,  they 


THOMAS  S.  WILLIAMSON         87 

were  filled  with  expectancy  and  longing  as 
they  called  to  mind  the  stories  their  parents 
had  told  them  of  the  large  circle  of  dear 
friends  and  relatives  who  there  lived.  They 
stopped  one  night  at  the  plantation  of  one 
of  these  near  relatives.  The  large  house  with 
wide  porches  stood  some  distance  from  the 
roadj  with  negro  quarters  in  the  rear.  They 
were  courteously  though  somewhat  cautiously 
entertained.  In  the  morning  when  prayers 
and  breakfast  were  over  the  negro  boys  who 
had  taken  their  horses  the  evening  before 
were  seen  holding  them  by  the  reins  at  the 
mounting-block.  The  host  then  called  Thomas 
to  one  side  and  said, 

"Now,  Thomas,  as  you  have  told  us  of  the 
object  of  your  visit,  I  wish  to  tell  you  that 
it  will  be  impossible  for  us  to  entertain  you 
on  your  return;  and  for  the  future,  if  you 
continue  in  your  present  course,  the  farther 
away  you  stay  the  better." 

Thus  it  was  that  "for  conscience'  sake"  the 
ties  which  bound  them  to  earthly  kith  and 
kin  were  rudely  severed.  One  family  alone, 
a  dear  sister  of  their  father's,  followed  them 
to  Ohio  with  their  twenty-four  slaves.  This 
loss,  however  painful  at  the  time,  was  more 
than  made  up  by  the  love  of  Jesus. 

A  liberal  education  at  that  time  was  only 
attained  by  the  favored  ones.     Thomas  Will- 


88       HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

iamson  was  a  favored  one,  being  an  only  son. 
Besides  his  sister  Jane  he  had  four  older  sis- 
ters by  another  mother,  but  higher  education 
was  not  for  girls  in  those  days.  So  by  the 
combined  effort  of  the  family,  and  his  own 
economy,  he  was  graduated  at  Jefferson  Col- 
lege when  nineteen  years  old.  After  leaving 
college  he  taught  school  for  a  time,  and  then 
decided  to  study  medicine.  Slow  of  speech 
and  wielding  a  clumsy  pen,  neither  he  nor 
his  friends  seem  to  have  thought  of  his  en- 
tering the  ministry.  Tutoring  was  common 
then.  His  father  had  tutored  him  for  col- 
lege, and  now  his  oldest  sister  had  married 
William  B.  Willson,  M.D.;  so  he  read  medi- 
cine with  him,  and  afterwards  took  lectures  in 
Philadelphia,  and  then  at  New  Haven,  where 
he  took  the  degree  of  M.D. 

He  settled  for  the  practice  of  medicine  at 
Ripley,  Ohio,  where  he  had  been  the  prin- 
cipal of  an  academy  for  two  years.  He  soon 
built  up  a  large  practice,  and  married  Mar- 
garet Poage,  the  daughter  of  the  town  pro- 
prietor. He  took  an  active  interest  in  the 
academy,  was  elected  a  member  of  the  Board 
of  Trustees,  and  was  the  means  of  starting 
several  young  men  to  prepare  for  the  min- 
istry. The  Rev.  S.  R.  Riggs,  D.D.,  who  after- 
wards became  his  co-laborer,  was  one  of  the 
students  at  the  time,  and  wrote. 


THOMAS  S.  WILLIAMSON         89 

"Whoever  else  is  absent  from  the  examina- 
tions. Dr.  Williamson  is  always  present,  and 
for  a  purpose." 

From  directing  others  to  work  for  Christ 
he  was  doubtless  led  to  think  more  of  what 
he  could  do  for  Him.  The  story  of  the  Nez 
Perces  who  came  from  the  Rocky  Mountains 
to  St.  Louis  in  search  of  Christ  moved  him 
deeply.  He  felt  his  heart  going  out  after 
them.  But  he  had  too  many  little  children. 
God  was  still  following  him,  and  arranged 
for  their  better  care.  An  old  marble  slab  still 
standing  in  the  cemetery  at  Ripley  tells  how. 
The  inscription  reads: 

"In  memory  of  William  Blair,  Mary  Poage 
and  Gilliland,  children  of  Thomas  S.  and 
Margaret  Poage  Williamson,  who  died  in  the 
year  1833." 

He  recognized  the  voice  of  God  calling 
him  to  be  a  missionary.  His  wife,  though 
of  weak  constitution,  joined  heartily  in  his 
decisions.  He  immediately  closed  up  his  pro- 
fessional work  and  went  to  Lane  Seminary 
to  study  theology.  The  next  spring  he  was 
licensed  to  preach  and,  under  appointment  of 
the  American  Board  of  Commissioners  for 
Foreign  Missions,  made  a  tour  of  exploration 
among  the  Indian  tribes  of  the  upper  Mis- 
sissippi Valley.  Returning  that  fall  he  con- 
tinued   his    theological   studies,    and    in    the 


90       HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

spring  of  1835  was  ordained  to  the  ministry 
by  Chillicothe  Presbytery.  He  secured  as  as- 
sistant missionaries  Mr.  Alexander  G.  Hug- 
gins  and  wife  and  Miss  Sarah  Poage,  his 
sister-in-law.  The  party  took  a  steamboat 
for  St.  Louis,  and  there  another  for  Fort 
Snelling,  Minnesota. 

As  the  steamboat  hove  in  sight  of  Fort 
Snelling  the  little  mission  party  peered  out 
to  catch  a  first  sight  of  the  field  to  which 
God  had  called  them.  Were  it  the  earth  they 
were  to  cultivate, — truly  it  was  a  goodly  land. 
But  their  work  was  to  be  in  the  vineyard  of 
souls,  and  the  appalling  darkness  was 
enough  to  chill  the  stoutest  heart.  Thirty 
thousand  Sioux  and  every  one  a  heathen ! 

Then  what  of  the  bodily  safety  of  the 
missionaries.''  The  last  white  settlements 
had  been  passed  several  days  before  at  Prai- 
rie du  Chien.  True,  they  were  in  territory 
claimed  by  the  United  States,  but  no  land  in 
^Minnesota  had  yet  been  purchased  of  the  In- 
dians, except  nine  miles  square  upon  which 
Fort  Snelling  stood.  The  Indians  knew  noth- 
ing of  the  sale  which  France  had  made  thirty 
years  before  of  the  great  territory  west  of 
the  Mississippi  to  the  United  States.  Min- 
nesota had  been  the  home  of  the  Sioux  from 
time  immemorial.  The  best  blood  of  every 
generation    had    been    spilt    in    protecting    it 


THOMAS  S.  WILLIAMSON         91 

from  the  incursions  of  Indian  enemies. 
Neither  could  the  white  man  have  it  without 
their  consent.  Such  was  their  statement 
then,  and  the  long  string  of  ghastly  battle- 
grounds and  blood-crying  camps  that  stretch 
from  the  Mississippi  River  to  the  Rocky 
Mountains  bear  witness  to  its  truth. 

The  location  for  a  station  was  now  to  be 
decided.  Fort  Snelling  was  the  natural 
place.  The  rivers  were  then  the  channels  for 
business,  and  it  was  at  the  confluence  of  all 
the  streams  on  which  lived  the  Sioux  of  Min- 
nesota. The  Government  had  already  placed 
there  the  Indian  agency  and  the  military 
post  for  that  region.  The  principal  fur 
company  had  also  just  located  their  supply 
depot  for  the  traders  of  the  Northwest  at  that 
point.  A  few  officers  had  brought  their 
wives — the  only  white  women  in  the  country. 
Fort  Snelling  was  also  the  only  post-office, 
where  they  received  mail  once  a  month,  post- 
age being  twenty-five  cents. 

However,  Dr.  Williamson  decided  to  locate 
elsewhere.  The  American  Board  had  ap- 
pointed another  missionary.  Licentiate  J.  D. 
Stevens,  who  was  already  on  the  way.  Also 
two  remarkable  young  men  from  Connecti- 
cut had  come  to  teach  the  heathen  at  their 
own  charges,  and  had  located  at  an  Indian 
village  near  by.     Their  names  were  Samuel 


92       HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

W.  and  Gideon  H.  Pond,  and  both  afterwards 
became  ministers.  He  would  leave  this  field 
for  them.  His  Lord  had  not  located  at  Jeru- 
salem. Perchance  he  would  lead  him  to  the 
Sea  of  Galilee. 

On  his  tour  the  previous  year  he  had  met 
a  French  half-breed,  Joseph  Renville,  who 
interested  him  much.  He  had  a  small  trading 
post  at  Lac  qui  Parle,  two  hvmdred  miles 
west  of  Fort  Snelling.  He  met  him  again 
at  this  time,  and  his  cry  was, 

"Come  over  and  help  us." 

The  Doctor  prayed  over  it  and  was  assured 
in  his  heart  it  was  God's  call.  He  told  Mr. 
Renville  he  would  go. 

During  his  few  weeks'  stay  at  Fort  Snel- 
ling he  had  not  been  idle.  Quite  remarkably, 
the  commandant  of  the  post,  ^lajor  Loomis, 
with  his  wife  and  daughter,  were  active 
Christian  workers.  He  asked  the  Pond 
brothers  to  come  and  hold  meetings  at  the 
post  on  the  Sabbath.  The  result  was  a  dozen 
or  more  conversions.  The  timely  arrival  of 
an  ordained  minister  suggested  the  advan- 
tages of  a  church  organization.  Dr.  Will- 
iamson accordingly  organized  the  church  with 
twenty-two  members,  over  whom  four  elders 
were  ordained,  one  of  whom  was  the  com- 
mandant, another  the  head  trader  of  the  fur 
company,  and  another  the  older  of  the  Pond 


THOMAS  S.  WILLIAMSON         93 

brothers.  This  was  the  first  church  organ- 
ized in  what  is  now  the  State  of  Minnesota, 
and  was  the  genesis  of  the  First  Church  of 
Minneapolis. 

Some  time  in  June  Dr.  Williamson  and  his 
party  again  started  West,  Their  conveyance 
was  a  large  lumber  wagon  bought  for  the 
purpose.  But  it  was  found  the  first  eighty 
miles  was  a  dense  forest,  through  which  no 
road  had  been  cut.  Mr.  Renville,  however, 
came  to  his  assistance  and  loaded  everything 
except  the  horses  on  his  Mackinaw  flat-boat, 
which  was  already  well  filled  with  his  yearly 
supply  of  store  goods.  The  horses  Dr.  Will- 
iamson took  by  land.  The  dozen  or  more 
Canadians  made  slow  progress  shoving  the 
boat  against  the  current,  so  Dr.  Williamson 
easily  made  their  camjDS  every  night.  Reach- 
ing a  point  near  St.  Peter,  Mr.  Renville's 
caravan  of  some  fifty  Red  River  carts  was 
found  waiting.  All  took  to  wheels  for  one 
hundred  and  twenty  miles,  over  great  rolling 
prairies  to  Lac  qui  Parle,  which  they  reached 
on  the  sixth  day. 

Mr.  Renville's  trading  post  consisted  of  a 
cluster  of  a  dozen  or  more  log  cabins,  sur- 
rounded by  a  stockade.  He  offered  the  mis- 
sion party  the  use  of  one  of  these  cabins 
until  they  could  build.  Mr.  Huggins  built  a 
cabin  for  himself  that  fall,  but  Dr.  William- 


94       HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

son  remained  with  ^Ir.  Renville  through  the 
winter,  and  a  son  was  born  to  him  there. 

Dr.  Williamson  had  now  entered  upon  the 
great  work  of  his  life.  A  voice  rang  in  his 
ear, 

"  Prepare  ye  the  way  of  the  Lord." 

And  again  the  message  came, 

"  Cast  up,  cast  up  the  highway,  gather  out  the 
stones." 

Before  the  Lord  would  enter  the  hearts  of 
this  savage  heathen  people  much  work  had 
to  be  done.  They  did  not  even  have  a  name 
for  God,  as  they  had  no  conception  of  Him. 
To  teach  them,  the  teacher  must  learn  their 
language.  The  first  services  Dr.  Williamson 
held,  he  spoke  in  English.  The  trader's  clerk 
translated  it  into  French.  Then  the  trader, 
Mr.  Renville,  translated  it  into  Indian. 

As  Dr.  Williamson  had  discovered  on  his 
exploring  tour  that  the  few  interpreters  to 
be  found  were  French,  he  had  spent  consid- 
erable time  the  intervening  winter  studying 
French.  So  before  long  he  was  able  to  speak 
in  French,  and  needed  only  Mr.  Renville  to  in- 
terpret. To  learn  the  Indian  language  was 
a  much  greater  task.  It  was  as  yet  not  re- 
duced to  writing,  and  the  few  interpreters, 
like  Mr.  Renville,  were  uneducated  men  who 


THOMAS  S.  WILLIAMSON         95 

did  not  know  a  noun  from  a  verb,  and  soon 
became  wearied  at  being  queried.  The  best 
help  he  had  was  the  few  days  he  spent  with 
the  Pond  brothers.  To  them  belongs  the 
credit  of  forming  the  Dakota  alphabet  which, 
with  some  slight  changes,  is  still  used  in  all 
Dakota  books.  They  gave  him  a  list  of  In- 
dian words,  and  also  facts  as  to  the  construc- 
tion of  the  language.  What  it  took  them 
months  to  learn  they  could  give  to  him  in  a 
few  words.  The  next  need  was  Christian 
literature  in  the  Indian  language — especially 
the  Bible,  and  some  Christian  hymns.  At 
first  the  missionary  would  translate  as  best  he 
could  a  verse,  or  short  passage,  for  his  next 
service.  The  first  printed  selections  were 
made  by  the  Rev.  S.  W.  Pond.  The  complete 
Bible  as  we  now  have  it  was  all  translated 
(or  revised)  by  the  Rev.  Thomas  S.  William- 
son, M.D.,  and  Stephen  R.  Riggs,  D.D.,  who 
spent  a  large  part  of  their  time  for  forty 
years  upon  it.  The  last  proofs  were  corrected 
by  Dr.  Williamson  to  his  great  joy  only  a 
short  time  before  his  death. 

Heathenism  among  the  Dakotas  was  a 
stone  wall  in  the  way  of  Christianity.  Be- 
ing polytheists  they  did  not  look  upon  the 
worship  of  a  number  of  gods  as  inconsistent. 
So  when  the  White  Sacred-man  came  to  them, 
and  a  word  for  God  was  formed,  they  looked 


96       HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

upon  it  simply  as  tlie  name  of  the  white  man's 
god,  and  had  no  more  objection  to  their  peo- 
ple adopting  it  than  to  their  adopting  the 
white  man's  dress,  or  mode  of  life.  So  it  was 
several  years  before  the  nation  generally 
realized  that  the  adoption  of  Christianity 
meant  the  abandonment  of  their  worship. 

In  these  years  tlie  mission  at  Lac  qui  Parle 
was  prepared.  In  March  following  his  ar- 
rival he  organized  a  small  church  of  the  lay 
members  of  the  mission  and  a  few  Indians. 
Of  the  first  seven  Indians  received,  one  was 
a  man  and  all  the  rest  women.  The  cause 
of  this  disproportion  was  not  probably  to  be 
found  in  the  fact  that  women  are  more  re- 
ligious than  men,  but  because  among  the 
Indians  religion,  like  war  and  the  chase, 
belongs  only  to  the  superior  sex.  The 
women  therefore  were  less  bound  to  heathen- 
ism, and  more  ready  to  listen  to  Christian 
truth.  For  the  first  seven  years  there  were 
additions  every  year,  averaging  seven,  mak- 
ing in  all  forty-nine  and  in  the  latter  years 
a  larger  proportion  of  men.  Nine  were 
added  the  seventh  year,  of  whom  three  were 
men. 

About  this  time  the  idol  worshippers  be- 
gan to  see  the  foundation  of  their  institution 
crmnbling.  A  coinicil  met  and  determined 
that  Christianity  must  be  wiped  out.     Vari- 


THOMAS  S.  WILLIAMSON         97 

ous  means  were  used  to  accomplish  it.  All 
Indians  were  forbidden  to  attend  either  school 
or  church,  and  policemen  were  stationed  on 
the  road  to  punish  them;  so  women  came  to 
church  a  number  of  times  with  their  blankets 
cut  in  strips.  The  officers  would  deride  and 
make  sport  of  the  church-goers  in  the  most' 
vexatious  ways.  Sometimes  they  would  use 
flattery  and  lead  them  into  sin,  perhaps 
drunkenness.  Sorcerers  would  bewitch  them 
so  they  would  die  mysteriously — probably 
from  poison. 

Efforts  to  drive  away  the  missionaries 
were  also  made  and  might  have  been  carried 
out,  as  no  government  officer  was  near 
enough  to  give  any  immediate  protection. 
Sometimes  the  missionaries  were  directly  or- 
dered to  leave  the  country.  More  commonly 
the  Indians  tried  to  vex  them  beyond  en- 
durance so  that  they  would  leave.  One  win- 
ter all  the  mission  cattle  and  horses  were  shot 
or  stolen,  except  one  ox  and  cow  that  the  mis- 
sionaries had  managed  to  protect.  This  ox 
and  cow  were  all  the  two  families  had  with 
which  to  haul  firewood,  put  in  their  spring 
crop,  and  do  all  necessary  transporting  of 
goods.  Again,  a  large  body  of  men  would 
come  galloping  up,  all  decked  for  war,  and 
surround  the  house,  and  with  fearful  yells 
give  an  exhibition  of  the  war  dance.     Then 


98       HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

the  spokesman  would  make  some  exorbitant 
demand  for  pay  for  living  in  their  country. 
Not  receiving  it  they  would  renew  the  dance 
and  keep  it  up  for  hours. 

By  such  means  the  progress  of  the  work 
was  stayed.  Several  years  there  were  no  ac- 
cessions, and  some  of  the  weak  members  fell. 
Yet  there  was  always  a  little  band  of  faithful 
ones  ready  to  endure  all  things  for  Christ's 
sake.  And  had  brighter  days  never  come,  the 
Doctor  would  have  gone  down  to  the  grave 
rejoicing  that  he  was  permitted  to  have  a 
part  in  the  salvation  of  these  few  souls. 

There  were  other  sources  of  trial.  Famine 
and  pestilence  came  and  scattered  the  whole 
band.  Many  went  to  Fort  Snelling.  Dr. 
Williamson  followed  them  and  settled  at  Lit- 
tle Crow's  village  (now  South  St.  Paul),  where 
he  remained  some  six  years.  During  this  time 
the  persecution  continued.  The  Lower  Sioux 
were  harder  to  reach  than  the  Western  Sioux. 
Being  nearer  the  whites  and  better  off,  they 
were  too  proud  to  listen  to  the  missionaries. 
Also  they  were  able  to  get  more  whiskey.  So 
although  much  more  missionary  labor  was  ex- 
pended on  them,  much  less  was  accomplished 
than  for  the  Lac  qui  Parle  Sioux. 

In  1851  a  treaty  was  made  with  all  the 
Minnesota  Sioux  which  opened  to  settlement 
all  their  country  except  a  reservation  on  the 


THOMAS  S.  WILLIAMSON         99 

upper  Minnesota  River,  and  thither  the  In- 
dians were  all  removed.  Dr.  Williamson  then 
chose  a  new  location  at  Yellow  Medicine, 
where  the  Lac  qui  Parle  Indians  were  to  set- 
tle. A  government  agency  was  also  estab- 
lished near  by,  and  not  a  great  way  off  was 
Fort  Ridgely.  The  near  presence  of  govern- 
ment officials  prevented  much  of  the  former 
persecution.  The  Indians  being  located 
closer  together  and  roving  less,  the  facilities 
for  church  and  school  work  were  improved. 
Converts  were  again  coming  forward,  now 
almost  as  many  men  as  women.  At  the  end 
of  the  year  (1862)  the  church  membership 
had  increased  to  sixty-four  Indians,  besides  a 
few  white  persons.  These  members  were 
connected  with  three  churches;  Yellow  Medi- 
cine in  charge  of  Dr.  Williamson ;  Hazlewood 
in  charge  of  the  Rev.  S.  R.  Riggs,  D.D. ; 
and  Redwood  in  charge  of  the  Rev.  John  P. 
Williamson.* 

Then  the  Christians  had  grown  in  char- 
acter much  more  than  in  numbers.  In  the 
three  churches  there  were  six  elders — all 
noble,  heroic  leaders.  The  Christian  Indians 
were  the  foremost  in  civilization,  and  some 
of  them  were  moving  to  the  front  in  the  tribal 
councils.      This   was    as   might   be   expected, 

*  (Son  of  Dr.  Thomas  S.  Williamson,  and  writer 
of  this  sketch. — Eds.) 


100     HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

for  up  to  this  time  the  mission  schools  had 
done  all  the  educational  work.  Thus  the  out- 
look was  more  encouraging  than  it  ever  had 
been. 

But  in  proportion  to  tlie  hopefulness  of 
the  church  work  the  heathen  leaders  were 
despondent  and  casting  about  for  retribution. 
Occasionally  they  destroyed  the  property  of 
some  Christian  and  even  took  a  life  by  poison ; 
but  these  methods  were  getting  to  be  too 
risky.  Then  religion  was  not  the  only  cause 
of  grief.  The  Government  had  several  times 
sorely  disappointed  them.  This  was  partly 
due  to  the  Indians'  misunderstanding,  but 
partly  also  to  mismanagement  of  the  Govern- 
ment. So  the  spirit  of  revenge  was  heaving 
their  breasts.  And  it  was  just  the  time  when 
the  War  of  the  Rebellion  was  engrossing  the 
nation  to  the  neglect  of  the  Indians.  The 
bombshell  was  only  waiting  to  be  ignited. 

It  was  on  a  Sunday  afternoon  that  five  In- 
dians got  into  a  quarrel  over  a  shooting 
match,  and  murdered  a  number  of  whites. 
The  shell  had  exploded.  In  twenty-four 
hours  not  a  white  person  was  left  in  his  home 
over  an  area  of  sixty  square  miles.  Some  had 
fled,  but  over  five  hundred  lay  weltering  in 
their  blood. 

I  have  said  that  in  twenty-four  hours  not 
a   white  was   left;   but  two   days   after  the 


THOMAS  S.  WILLIAMSON       101 

massacre  Dr.  Williamson  with  his  wife  and 
sister  Jane  were  still  kneeling  as  usual  for 
morning  prayer  in  his  own  house.  He  had 
told  his  children  and  son-in-law  to  flee,  but 
he  would  stay — perhaps  he  could  help  the 
Christian  Indians.  Messengers  and  war- 
parties  were  continually  flying  by.  Day  and, 
night  his  friends  had  stood  guard,  but  early 
that  morning  they  told  him  that  if  he  stayed 
it  would  be  the  death  of  them  all.  The  Doc- 
tor told  afterwards  that  he  still  felt  that  he 
would  rather  stay,  and  if  God  willed  die  at 
his  post;  but  that,  after  praying,  his  mind 
was  at  once  changed  and  under  the  guidance 
of  his  Indian  friends  he  fled. 

The  power  of  God  to  "make  the  wrath  of 
man  to  praise  him"  was  wonderfully  mani- 
fested in  this  terrible  massacre.  What  could 
redound  more  to  the  glory  of  God  than  the 
conduct  of  the  Christian  Indians  in  the  mas- 
sacre !  No  families  were  so  much  exposed 
as  the  missionaries,  and  yet  not  one  was 
killed.  Why.^  Because  the  Christian  Indians 
saved  them.  And  they  saved  not  only  them 
but  many  other  whites.  John  Otherday  saved 
the  party  of  sixty  whites  from  Yellow  Medi- 
cine. Simon  Anawangmani  saved  the  fam- 
ily of  Mrs.  Newman.  Lorenzo  Lawrence 
saved  Mrs.  De  Camp  and  children,  and 
others.      John  B.   Renville  and  Paul  Maza- 


102     HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

kutemani  were  the  means  of  rescuing  one 
hundred  captive  women  and  children.  All 
these  deliverers  were  Christian  Indians. 
With  one  exception  no  heathen  man  raised  a 
finger  to  save  a  soul.  That  exception  was 
Wakinyantawa,  a  heathen  who  saved  his 
friend,  George  Spencer,  a  trader.  Thus  we 
see  the  power  of  the  gospel  to  change  the 
savage  heart. 

But  God  be  praised  for  a  greater  victory — • 
a  spiritual.  As  of  old  the  enemies  of  God's 
people  were  swallowed  up  in  the  "Dead  Sea." 
The  war-prophets,  the  conjurers,  the  medi- 
cine-men were  in  the  lead  promising  victory 
— such  a  victory  as  would  enable  them  to  dic- 
tate the  terms  of  peace,  and  they  would  roll 
back  all  these  new  innovations  and  reinstate 
the  supremacy  of  their  gods.  Instead  came 
defeat.  Four  hundred  warriors  were  prison- 
ers at  Mankato,  and  their  families  to  the  num- 
ber of  two  thousand  souls  were  under  guard 
at  Fort  Snelling.  The  rest  of  the  tribe  were 
fleeing  for  their  lives  to  the  Northwest,  and 
to  Manitoba.  Where  now  are  their  gods? 
Like  themselves,  lying  helpless  in  the  dust. 
They  were  humbled. 

It  was  God's  opportunity.  Dr.  William- 
son saw  a  new  light.  God  had  saved  him  for 
a  purpose.  He  hastened  to  Mankato  to 
preach  Christ  Jesus  the  Saviour  of  sinners. 


THOMAS  S.  WILLIAMSON       103 

Seated  on  the  ground,  chained  two  and  two, 
with  their  blankets  over  their  heads,  sat  the 
prisoners — distrustful,  wild,  sullen.  At  first 
his  words  were  like  water  on  the  hard  rock. 
But  he  continued.  He  searched  out  individ- 
ual ones,  and  spoke  words  of  sympathy.  He 
told  them  they  were  bad  off,  but  God  was 
merciful,  and  he  knelt  down  and  prayed  for 
them.  He  told  them  of  the  love  of  Jesus  and 
how  he  could  save  their  souls.  The  Spirit  of 
God  came  down  on  them  like  the  gentle  rain 
on  the  clods  of  the  valley.  Many  a  man  ex- 
pecting to  be  executed  as  thirty-eight  of 
their  number  had  already  been,  and  who  had 
such  nerve  that  he  would  have  ascended  the 
scaffold  without  a  tremor,  shook  like  a  leaf 
as  he  rose  and  asked  that  God  would  for- 
give their  sins  for  Christ's  sake.  Three  hun- 
dred were  baptized  in  one  day. 

Dr.  Williamson  continued  to  minister  to  the 
prisoners  till  they  were  released,  four  years 
afterwards.  Dr.  Williamson  was  then  sixty- 
six  years  old — too  old  to  go  West  where  the 
Indians  were  sent  and  open  out  mission  work. 
So  he  settled  in  his  home  at  St.  Peter,  Min- 
nesota, where  he  died  in  his  eightieth  year. 
During  these  last  years  however  he  was  not 
idle.  Every  summer  he  made  a  tour  of  the 
Indian  churches.  And  the  superintendence 
of  the  work  of  the  native  helpers,  who  were 


104     HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

quite  numerous,  was  largely  in  his  hands 
while  he  lived. 

In  conclusion  we  may  ask,  wherein  lay  Dr. 
Williamson's  success?  He  was  no  orator,  no 
poet,  did  not  wield  a  ready  pen,  and  had  little 
confidence  in  himself. 

He  was  a  man  of  faith — not  only  theoret- 
ically, but  practically.  He  believed  in  God 
with  all  his  heart.  He  believed  God  had 
called  him  to  preach  to  the  heathen.  He 
believed  God  would  take  care  of  him  and  of 
the  results  if  he  followed  him. 

He  was  a  man  of  the  Bible.  He  believed 
it  was  God's  directory.  He  was  loyal  to  his 
church  creed  because  he  believed  it  was  drawn 
from  the  Bible. 

He  was  a  man  of  prayer.  The  family  altar 
and  the  closet  were  sacred  institutions,  as 
well  as  the  house  of  God.  In  days  of  doubt 
and  fear,  and  he  saw  many  such,  the  altar  of 
prayer  was  his  refuge,  and  brought  peace  to 
his  soul. 

He  was  a  man  of  unflinching  integrity. 
Success  was  a  secondary  consideration. 

He  had  the  unaffected  sympathy  which  is 
born  of  the  love  of  Jesus  for  sinners. 

He  had  a  good  judgment,  the  grounds  of 
which  he  could  not  always  give,  but  which 
was  probably  the  result  of  a  comprehensive 
view  of  the  whole  situation.     When  the  first 


THOMAS  S.  WILLIAMSON       105 

church  among  the  Indians  was  organized  at 
Lac  qui  Parle,  in  1836,  some  thought  it  hasty. 
There  were  so  few  (the  number  is  not 
known)  and  their  faith  was  not  proved.  How- 
ever, we  know  that  they  all  died  in  the  faith, 
and  of  the  descendants  of  the  first  sixteen 
who  united  there  six  have  become  ministers^ 
and  the  little  community  of  church  workers 
thus  started  wherever  they  have  gone  to  this 
day  are  among  the  leaders  in  the  worship  of 
God. 

[The  Rev.  John  P.  Williamson,  in  the  preparation 
of  the  preceding  outline  of  his  father's  life,  has  mod- 
estly hidden  his  own  large  share  in  the  work  of  the 
Dakota  Indians.  For  more  than  a  generation  he  has 
labored  with  untiring  and  self-sacrificing  heroism. 
He  would  not  wish  us  here  to  enlarge  upon  his  own 
work.  Suffice  it  to  say,  that  as  the  result  of  his 
father's  labors,  ably  followed  by  his  own,  the  six 
tribes  of  the  Sioux  nation  constitute  an  entire  Pres- 
bytery and  have  a  membership  in  the  Presbyterian 
Church  of  more  than  fifteen  hundred  commxmicants. 
There  are  seventeen  native  ministers  under  the  su- 
perintendence of  Dr.  Williamson  and  two  other 
American  ministers.  For  home  missions  they  raised 
for  the  year  closing  April  first,  1904,  the  sum  of 
$2,375.  A  large  part  of  this  is  placed  by  them 
among  their  own  people  for  the  support  of  churches 
which  would  otherwise  require  aid  from  the  funds  of 
the  Home  Board.  Of  their  twenty-seven  churches 
reported  in  the  Minutes,  twenty-one  are  aided  by  the 
Home  Board.  They  have  a  Sabbath  school  attend- 
ance of  over  eight  hundred. — Eds.] 


CHAPTER    VI. 

THE   PATRIARCH   OF  TWO   SYNODS, 
HENRY  LITTLE,  D.D. 

1800—1882. 
By  George  O.  Little,  D.D.* 

Dr.  Little  was  born  in  Boscawen,  New 
Hampshire,  March  twenty-third,  1800.  He 
died  in  Madison,  Indiana,  February  twenty- 
fifth,  1882. 

"His  religious  life,"  says  one  of  his  biog- 
raphers, "dated  back  so  far  into  his  child- 
hood that  of  its  beginning  there  is  no  incident 
to  be  related.  In  it  there  was  no  break  until 
death.  Rather,  it  would  be  correct  to  say 
that  the  little  rill  that  began  away  back 
among  the  hills  of  New  Hampshire  almost 
insensibly  widened  and  deepened  and  grew 
until  it  reached  the  waters  of  the  great  ocean 
of  immortal  life. 

A  man  who  is  connected  with  the  manage- 
ment of   large   railroad   interests   in   an   im- 

*  Son  of  Dr.  Henry  Little. — Eds. 
106 


Henry  Little,  D.D.,  18()l)-18S:2 


HENRY    LITTLE  107 

portant  centre  and  who  is  highly  respected 
for  his  religious  character,  Mr.  W.  N.  Jack- 
son of  Indianapolis,  sends  me  this  encomium : 

"Dr.  Little's  character  from  the  meridian 
to  the  end  was  one  of  the  most  perfect  that 
was  ever  presented  to  a  community  in  which 
I  have  lived." 

One  of  the  most  attractive  features  of  his 
religious  character  was  his  Christian  activity. 
For  him  to  be  at  his  Master's  work  seemed  to 
be  as  natural  and  as  necessary  as  it  is  for  the 
physical  vitality  of  a  child  to  manifest  itself 
in  the  exercise  of  its  bodily  powers. 

He  spent  all  his  early  years,  almost  up  to 
his  majority,  on  the  farm.  For  farm  life, 
not  only  agriculture  but  the  raising  and  tend- 
ing of  cattle,  he  had  a  love  that  amounted  to 
a  passion.  When  imported  merino  sheep 
were  worth  a  thousand  dollars  each  he  was 
chosen  to  take  care  of  a  flock  of  them,  watch- 
ing them  all  day  and  folding  them  by  night 
with  a  knowledge  and  a  care  of  each  sheep 
and  lamb  very  much  after  the  manner  of  the 
oriental  shepherd.  The  increasingly  felt 
necessity  to  preach  the  gospel  made  him  de- 
cide at  twenty  to  give  up  the  farm,  but  his 
love  for  it,  his  interest  in  it,  and  his  knowl- 
edge of  it,  which  continued  unabated  all  his 
life,  became  one  of  the  most  important  ele- 
ments of  his  usefulness  and  success  in  his 


108     HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

missionary  itinerary  among  the  agricultural 
population  of  the  West. 

He  entered  Dartmouth  College  at  twenty- 
two,  graduating  in  the  class  of  1826,  standing 
second  in  rank  of  scholarship  and  being 
oft'ered  a  tutorship.  He  gave  up  this  scholarly 
life,  so  inviting  to  his  tastes — as  he  did  farm- 
ing— for  the  sake  of  the  gospel.  Neverthe- 
less, it  had  a  great  deal  to  do  with  his  future 
success. 

His  first  pastorate  was  in  a  college  church 
connected  with  Miami  University,  and  some 
of  the  greatest  results  of  his  preaching  were 
found  among  college  students  of  Marietta 
and  Wabash. 

He  was  an  ideal  evangelist,  first  with  the 
young  people  of  his  home  church,  later  with 
his  pupils  in  the  schools  he  taught,  and  after- 
wards in  college  and  theological  seminary 
after  a  great  revival  in  one  of  his  schools  led 
him  to  decide  to  enter  the  ministry.  His  mar- 
velous success  in  the  signal  revivals  that 
occurred  in  his  student  life  largely  decided 
the  form  of  his  future  activity.  He  was 
chosen  for  his  first  work,  as  agent  of  the 
Education  Society  in  New  England,  by  Dr. 
Cornelius  and  others  because  of  his  peculiar 
aptness  in  turning  young  men  first  to  Christ 
and  then  to  the  Christian  ministry.  It  had 
also  a  great  deal  to  do  with  his  being  twice 


HENRY    LITTLE  109 

taken  from  successful  pastorates  to  engage  in 
home  missionary  work. 

He  was  ordained  September  twenty-fourth, 
1829,  in  Park  Street  Church,  Boston,  Massa- 
chusetts, with  fifteen  other  evangelists.  The 
hymn 

"Watchman!  tell  us  of  the  night — 
What  its  signs  of  promise  are," 

was  sung  then  for  the  first  time  to  a  tune 
composed  for  the  occasion  by  Lowell  Mason, 
which  has  ever  been  wedded  to  it  in  an  in- 
separable union.  It  was  the  keynote  of  his 
evangelistic  work. 

As  agent  for  the  Education  Society,  he 
traveled  for  a  year  in  New  England  and 
then,  with  headquarters  at  Cincinnati,  for  an- 
other year  in  the  West.  In  June,  1831,  he 
accepted  a  call  from  the  Presbyterian  church 
at  Oxford,  Ohio.  The  young  pastor  not  only 
satisfied  such  men  as  President  Bishop  and 
Prof.  McGuffee  with  his  preaching,  but  imder 
his  ministry  there  was  a  great  revival  and  in 
his  two  years'  pastorate  an  addition  to  the 
church  of  two  hundred  and  ninety-seven 
members. 

But  he  was  not  let  alone  in  his  congenial 
work.  Greatest  pressure  was  brought  to  bear 
upon  him  to  become  agent  of  the  American 


110     HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

Home  Missionary  Society.  This  was  urged 
by  the  professors  of  the  University  and  the 
prominent  members  of  his  church.  Absalom 
Peters,  corresponding  secretary,  says  in  one 
of  his  letters : 

"And  now,  if  you  find  yourself  beginning 
to  waver  and  hesitate,  I  trust  you  will  do  me 
the  favor  to  read  this  letter  to  Dr.  Bishop 
and  Prof.  McGuffee  and  tell  them  for  me 
that  I  depend  on  them  to  hold  you  to  the 
point  and  compel  you  to  come.  I  do  not  ordi- 
narily tease  a  brother  at  this  rate,  but  im- 
mense results  are  depending  upon  your  de- 
cision of  this  question.  I  dare  not  let  you 
go  wrong  without  earnestly  entreating  you 
to  go  right." 

He  writes  later  that  his  salary  of  six  hun- 
dred dollars  has  been  donated  by  Joseph 
Brewster,  so  that  "his  support  was  provided 
for  in  a  most  desirable  manner." 

He  yielded  and  took  for  his  first  field 
Ohio,  Kentucky  and  Tennessee.  When,  five 
years  later  Dr.  Little  became  pastor  of  the 
Second  Church,  Madison,  Indiana,  after  only 
two  years,  during  which  his  church  was 
doubled,  he  was  brought  back  by  an  ever 
increasing  pressure  to  home  missionary  work, 
in  which  he  then  continued  to  the  day  of  his 
death.     The  Rev.  D.  H.  Allen  writes, 

"I  most  heartily  rejoiced  to  learn  that  you 


HENRY    LITTLE  111 

were  about  to  resume  the  agency  of  the 
American  Home  Missionary  Society.  The 
good  cause  has  dragged  ever  since  you  left  it." 
The  Rev.  T.  A.  Mills  writes, 
"Your  friends  have  always  thought  your 
talents  for  our  agency  superior.  I  have  no 
doubt  you  could  accomplish  more  in  that  ca- 
pacity for  the  cause  of  Christ  than  you  could 
as  pastor." 

The  Rev.  John  M.  Bishop,  son  of  President 
Bishop  of  jNIiami,  at  the  golden  wedding, 
quoted  such  words  as  having  been  said  to  him 
at  Oxford  and  added, 

"My  father  objected  to  this  statement, 
saying,  'No  one  who  knows  you  as  a  pastor 
will  say  that.'  " 

In  later  years  he  received  flattering  calls  to 
churches  at  Ottawa,  Illinois;  Bowling  Green, 
Lexington  and  Louisville,  Kentucky;  George- 
town, Troy  and  Portsmouth,  Ohio;  Columbia, 
Tennessee,  and  St.  Louis,  Missouri. 

Of  the  latter  the  Rev.  A.  Bullard  of  the 
First  Church  writes, 

"There  is  no  one  in  the  land  I  would  be 
more  pleased  to  have  pastor  of  the  Second 
Church  than  you." 

But  henceforth  he  withstood  all  calls  and 
invitations  that  took  him  away  from  home 
missions.  Although  thus  compelled  to  deny 
himself  the  congenial  pastoral  life,   his  ac- 


112     HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

quaintance  with  the  difficulties  and  opportu- 
nities of  the  pastorate  was  of  the  greatest  use 
to  him  in  his  visitation  of  the  churches,  where 
he  often  acted  as  adviser,  arbitrator  and 
peacemaker  between  pastor  and  people  in 
churches  split  by  divisions. 

Dr.  Little  had  also  fine  business  qualities. 
New  England  thrift  and  economy,  good 
judgment,  a  cool  head,  and  both  insight  and 
foresight.  Willing  to  advise  and  help  others 
in  business  affairs,  and  with  abundant  oppor- 
tunities for  gain,  yet  he  would  not  turn  aside 
from  his  work  for  any  enterprise,  however 
lucrative.  One  of  his  associates  in  the  min- 
istry in  Indiana  invented  and  patented  what 
was  called  a  "Fruit  House,"  the  forerunner 
of  the  cold  storage  plants  of  our  day.  In  an 
address  to  students  of  Wabash  College  Mr. 
Nice  gave  Dr.  Little  credit  for  great  help  in 
mastering  the  principles  of  cold  storage. 
Together  they  worked  out  the  problem. 
When  it  was  all  done  and  a  patent  had  been 
secured  which  was  supposed  to  be  worth  a 
great  fortune,  Mr.   Nice  said, 

"Brother  Little,  if  you  will  go  in  with  me 
we  will  give  half  to  the  Lord  and  the  other 
half  we  will  divide  equally  between  us." 

In  an  instant  the  reply  came, 

"Oh  no.  Brother  Nice,  my  business  is  to 
preach  the  gospel." 


HENRY    LITTLE  113 

At  first,  until  mismanaged,  it  brought  in 
large  returns  daily  and  he  was  asked  if  he 
had  not  made  a  mistake  in  refusing.  He 
answered, 

"It  did  not  amoimt  to  a  temptation." 

Again,  Dr.  Little  was  of  a  most  univer- 
sally cheerful  and  genial  disposition,  a  ready 
conversationalist,  a  fluent  talker,  and  an  in- 
teresting story  teller  and  narrator  of  remark- 
able incidents  and  notable  events,  so  that  both 
in  private  and  in  public  he  was  always  sure 
to  have  admiring  listeners.  A  veteran  minis- 
ter has  lately  told  how  when  a  boy  riding  in 
a  stage  from  Cincinnati  to  Oxford  the  pas- 
sengers were  greatly  entertained  all  the  way 
by  the  versatile  conversation  of  one  of  their 
number  whose  name  they  did  not  know,  and 
how  surprised  he  was  next  morning  to  find 
this  man  in  the  pulpit  and  to  learn  that  he 
was  the  Mr.  Little  who  had  been  announced 
to  preach.  He  said  he  preached  as  well  as  he 
talked,  and  that  in  all  his  association  with 
him  in  after  life  he  had  found  him  under  all 
circumstances  the  same  interesting  talker,  the 
life  of  every  circle  in  which  he  moved.  But 
this  power  to  entertain  was  never  used  for 
itself  alone,  much  less  for  his  own  popular- 
ity, but  always  to  interest  men  in  the  work  of 
saving  souls  through  the  gospel  of  Christ. 

These  marked  characteristics  of  Dr.  Lit- 


114     HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

tie, — his  pre-eminent  religious  life  and  Chris- 
tian activity,  his  practical  knowledge  of  and 
interest  in  farm  life,  his  scholarly  attain- 
ments and  tastes,  his  aptness  for  and  success 
in  the  pastorate,  his  fine  business  sagacity  and 
management  of  monetary  affairs,  his  power  as 
a  conversationali.T  and  fluent  talker, — fur- 
nished the  warp  of  his  uninterrupted  half 
century's  work  in  the  ministry,  whose  busy 
labors  were  the  woof,  and  his  remarkable 
record  the  web. 

Dr.  Little  was  'he  veteran  pioneer  home 
missionary  of  the  nineteenth  century,  having 
given  nearly  one  half  of  it  to  continuous 
work  in  connection  with  the  different  agencies 
of  home  missions, — from  1833  to  1861  with 
the  American  Home  Missionary  Society; 
from  1861  to  1869  with  the  Presbyterian 
Committee  of  Home  Missions,  New  School; 
and  from  1869  to  1882  with  the  Board  of 
Home  Missions  of  the  reunited  Church.  In 
all  this  period — as  was  said  at  his  golden 
wedding — he  never  took  a  vacation,  never 
made  a  visit  except  in  connection  with  some 
work  of  the  Church,  never  had  a  quarrel,  and 
was  very  rarely  sick,  although  he  constantly 
traveled  in  a  malarious  climate.  He  handed 
down  such  a  vigorous  constitution  to  his 
eight  children  that  twenty-one  years  after 
his  death  all  are  living.     His  own  years  of 


HENRY    LITTLE  115 

service,  with  those  already  rendered  by  his 
four  sons  who  followed  in  his  profession, 
complete  two  centuries  of  continuous  work  in 
the  ministry  of  the  gospel.  Dr.  Little  more 
than  any  other  man,  as  pioneer  and  veteran, 
created  the  office  which  in  the  evolution  of 
the  work  has  been  successively  styled  Home 
Missionary  Agent,  Synodical  Missionary  and 
Superintendent  of  Home  Missions.  He  be- 
came the  model  exemplar  for  the  many 
worthy  men  who  have  followed  in  this  posi- 
tion of  responsibility  and  trust. 

Dr.  Little's  forty-eight  years'  work  in 
home  missions  in  the  West  may  naturally  be 
divided  into  three  parts.  First,  the  raising 
of  money  for  the  support  of  home  mission- 
aries. Secondly,  the  organizing  and  care 
of  churches.  Thirdly,  the  evangelistic  work 
for  the  salvation  of  souls. 

First.  As  home  missionary  agent  his  chief 
work  was  to  present  the  cause  and  collect 
funds.  He  proved  to  be  a  wonderful  money 
collector.  Some  one  said  at  the  General  As- 
sembly at  ]\Iadison,  Wisconsin, 

"His  obituary  sermon  ought  to  be  preached 
from  the  text,  'And  the  beggar  died.'  " 

His  ability  in  this  direction  was  utilized  in 
two  great  emergencies, — to  secure  fifty  thou- 
sand dollars  for  Lane  Theological  Seminary 
and  ten  thousand  dollars  for  Western  Female 


116     HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

Seminary,  other  ministers  acting  as  substi- 
tutes for  him  while  he  was  engaged  in  this 
work. 

The  pastors  of  strong  churches  did  not 
then  as  now  take  up  their  own  collections  for 
missions,  being  furnished  with  needed  infor- 
mation and  statistics ;  but  they  depended  upon 
the  agent  to  present  the  cause  on  the  Sab- 
bath and  take  a  collection.  Dr.  Little  had 
the  gift  of  interesting  all  classes  in  his  work 
and  of  getting  an  adequate  expression  of  this 
interest  in  liberal  contributions, — not  dragged 
from  them  unwillingly  to  be  regretted  after- 
wards, but  to  be  poured  out  willingly  from 
a  full  heart  with  regret  that  the  purse  was  not 
as  full  as  the  heart. 

In  raising  these  funds  from  the  churches 
as  much  was  done  out  of  the  pulpit  as  in  it. 
His  business  qualities  which  have  been  men- 
tioned won  the  confidence  of  the  rich  men 
and  they  intrusted  him  with  their  growing 
wealth.  The  majority  of  the  members  of  the 
churches  and  congregations  were  farmers ; 
and  his  own  love  and  knowledge  of  farming 
was  so  full  and  complete  that  in  his  conver- 
sation with  them  in  their  homes  and  in  his 
agricultural  addresses  he  not  only  helped 
them  to  make  money  by  farming,  but  so  inter- 
ested them  that  the  money  they  made  they 
freely  gave  to  missions. 


HENRY    LITTLE  117 

At  that  time  the  churches  that  could  give 
all  cash  contributions  were  few.  Money  in 
the  earlier  periods  of  his  labors  often  was 
harder  to  get  than  other  articles  of  value 
which  could  be  sent  for  the  use  of  the  mis- 
sionary laborers  or  sold  for  their  support. 
Consequently  some  of  his  collections  were 
quite  unusual  in  their  character.  For  in- 
stance, he  says  of  his  first  visit  to  a  certain 
church : 

"I  asked  the  minister,  'How  much  more 
would  your  folks  give  to  subscribe  now  (in 
April)  wheat  or  corn  they  would  sow  and  pay 
next  Christmas?'  And  he  said,  'At  least 
twice  as  much.' 

"So  I  preached  a  missionary  sermon  on  the 
Sabbath.  And  Monday  morning  they  came 
together,  and  one  gave  a  horse,  one  a  two 
dollar  calf,  one  his  highest  priced  fat  wether, 
one  the  making  of  a  suit  of  clothes,  one  a 
half  and  another  a  quarter  of  an  acre  of 
wheat,  one  a  pound  of  butter  a  week  till 
Christmas,  and  so  on ;  and  as  much  cash  as  if 
I  had  asked  only  for  cash.  Then  a  man  gave 
a  new  bridle,  and  it  was  on  the  horse  which 
stood  there,  and  the  men  who  were  looking 
on  knew  I  had  to  ride  twenty-five  miles  and 
preach  that  night;  and  I  told  them  I  could 
not  ride  well  without  a  saddle;  and  in  five 
minutes  seven  of  them  gave  two  dollars  each 


118     HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

and  put  a  fifteen  dollar  saddle  on  my  horse, 
the  saddler  who  gave  me  the  bridle  throwing 
in  the  profits.  The  next  six  years  they  gave 
me  eight  horses  for  eight  home  missionaries, 
and  all  with  the  most  hearty  good  cheer  as  at 
the  time  when  young  Stuart  gave  me  the 
colt." 

This  is  only  a  sample  of  what  constantly 
occurred.  Similar  instances  could  be  multi- 
plied indefinitely. 

These  products  were  sent  directly  to  the 
home  missionaries  in  place  of  salary,  or  were 
shipped  to  persons  who  would  convert  them 
into  cash.  His  business  abilities  served  him 
in  good  stead  in  these  commission  transac- 
tions. Another  way  of  maintaining  the  mis- 
sionaries was  by  the  home  mission  boxes 
which  were  not  prepared  especially  for  and 
sent  directly  to  each  missionary  as  they  now 
are,  but  were  packed  indiscriminately  in  one 
box  and  sent  to  Dr.  Little  as  agent  to  be 
sorted  over  and  distributed.  He  had  to  know 
the  needs  of  each  family;  the  number,  ages, 
sizes  and  sex  of  the  children  in  each  family; 
and  assort  for  each;  and,  being  thus  pre- 
pared, to  save  expressage  or  freight,  to  carry 
them  on  his  next  visit  to  the  different  mis- 
sionaries. 

In  the  course  of  his  ministry  another  large 
source  of  income  for  missions  was  the  large 


HENRY    LITTLE  119 

personal  contributions  made  to  Dr.  Little  at 
the  close  of  his  evangelistic  services,  out  of 
gratitude  for  what  he  had  been  able  to  do 
for  the  donors  or  for  members  of  their  fam- 
ilies. All  these,  in  spite  of  earnest  protest 
of  the  givers,  were  turned  over  to  the  treasury 
as  regular  collections  for  missions. 

The  second  work  of  Dr.  Little  was  the 
organizing  and  care  of  home  missionary 
churches.  As  the  pastors  more  and  more  un- 
dertook the  collection  of  needed  funds  the 
character  of  his  work  changed,  and  instead  of 
agent  he  became  synodical  missionary  whose 
chief  work  was  to  visit  destitute  fields ;  to 
hunt  up  and  awaken  church  members  whose 
letters  were  in  eastern  churches;  to  organize 
churches  and  after  grouping  them  wisely  to 
secure  suitable  ministers  for  them  and  then 
to  care  for  their  development  and  growth. 

He  combined  in  himself  many  admirable 
qualities  that  especially  fitted  him  for  this 
ever  widening  work.  He  was  universally 
known,  respected  and  welcomed.  He  was 
tactful  with  ministers  and  people.  He  was 
unwearied  in  his  efforts,  both  by  correspond- 
ence and  personal  visits,  to  meet  the  varied 
wants  of  the  different  parts  of  the  field.  He 
was  singularly  free  from  partiality  and 
favoritism.  He  always  chose  the  harder  and 
more  difficult  work  to  do  first.     He  was  pa- 


120     HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

tient,  forbearing  and  forgiving,  never  taking 
offence  and  never  giving  cause  for  any.  He 
was  alike  successful  in  wise  initiatory  work  of 
forming  churches  and  in  caring  for  them  in 
all  the  trying  stages  of  reaching  self-sup- 
port. He  was  a  good  organizer,  a  good  judge 
of  both  men  and  means,  a  wise  adviser  and 
a  superb  helper.  He  always  did  good  and — 
equally  important — never  did  harm.  Further- 
more, he  carried  the  golden  rule  into  practice 
with  other  denominations  in  tlie  formation  of 
new  churches.  He  was  so  fair  to  them  and 
their  interests  that  they  cooperated  with  him, 
often  holding  union  services  while  he  was 
gathering  together  the  Presbyterians  in  a 
church  organization. 

As  the  States  grew  in  population  and  the 
number  of  churches  increased,  his  field  was 
gradually  narrowed, — first  to  the  two  States 
of  Ohio  and  Indiana  and  then  to  Indiana 
alone;  and  he,  with  a  more  general  work,  be- 
came Superintendent  of  Missions,  the  patri- 
arch of  the  two  Synods  finally  merged  into 
one. 

In  the  first  and  second  forms  of  work 
^already  named  there  was  of  course  a  good 
deal  of  similarity  with  that  of  others  occu- 
pying the  same  position  then  and  since,  the 
special  difference  being  that  he  antedated 
them,  originating  rather  than  copying. 


HENRY    LITTLE  121 

But  in  the  third  great  work  of  his  life, 
that  of  an  evangelist,  he  was  unique.  He 
thus  modestly  expressed  himself  in  a  private 
letter  to  a  relative  in  a  review  of  his  life: 

""When  about  fifty  years  ago,  beginning 
for  a  year  as  agent  for  the  Education  So- 
ciety in  New  England,  then  coming  West  and 
locating  at  Cincinnati  with  the  whole  West 
for  my  field,  and  preaching  at  many  camp 
meetings  and  in  school  houses,  in  private 
houses,  in  barns,  in  groves,  on  canal  boats 
and  steamboats,  also  in  many  large  cities  and 
towns,  and  often  in  new  fields  where  no  min- 
ister had  ever  preached  a  sermon  before,  I  do 
not  know  that  I  ever  looked  at  the  question  in 
just  this  light  before,  but  really  I  cannot 
think  of  a  bishop,  presiding  elder,  agent, 
evangelist,  or  any  old  minister  in  any  of  our 
church  work,  whose  duties  have  given  him  a 
chance  to  preach  in  so  many  places  in  the 
more  than  forty-eight  years  since  I  was 
licensed." 

He  was  everywhere  the  effective  preacher, 
the  winning  evangelist,  the  awakening  re- 
vivalist. He  talked  so  naturally  and  easily 
that  he  never  knew  fatigue  in  preaching.  He 
so  trusted  God  for  results  that  he  was  never 
worn  out  by  nervous  strain  of  anxiety  even 
in  the  most  protracted  and  excited  meetings. 
It  was  estimated  that  he  averaged  one  ser- 


122     HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

mon  a  day  through  the  year,  as  he  generally 
preached  three  times  on  the  Sabbath  and  daily 
through  the  week  whenever  protracted  re- 
vival services  could  wisely  be  held.  The  only 
cessation,  sometimes  for  weeks  together, 
would  be  the  time  taken  for  travel  from  place 
to  place.  He  seemed  equally  adapted  to  rural 
or  city  churches,  to  uneducated  workmen  or 
to  college  students.  He  became  all  things  to 
all  men,  everywhere  so  telling  the  old,  old 
story  that  men  were  led  to  see  how  sweet  is 
His  service  and  how  safe  is  His  fold. 

Dr.  Tuttle,  President  of  Wabash  College, 
writes : 

"He  never  appeared  to  better  advantage 
than  in  a  revival.  There  he  was  at  home. 
His  desire  to  save  sinners  seemed  like  a  fire 
in  his  bones,  a  holy  passion.  As  I  have  heard 
him  it  has  ceased  to  be  a  wonder  that  he  has 
been  honored  of  God  in  an  extraordinary 
number  of  conversions  in  revivals.  He  has 
often  aided  in  revival  services  in  the  older 
churches  but  his  glory  is  in  having  been  the 
revivalist  of  home  missionary  fields,  the  waste 
and  neglected  regions.  What  a  preacher, 
what  a  soul  harvester,  what  a  wise  friend, 
what  a  sagacious  judge  of  places  needing 
churches,  what  a  peacemaker  has  he  been !" 

No  biography  of  Dr.  Little  would  be  com- 
plete which  did  not  make  loving  and  appre- 


HENRY    LITTLE  123 

ciative  mention  of  his  wife^  Susan  Norton 
Smith.  If  there  were  "perils"  innumerable 
and  "the  care  of  aU  the  churches"  for  the 
loving  heart  and  broad  shoulders  of  the  great 
missionary,  think  you  there  were  no  perils 
and  cares  in  the  Madison  home  under  the 
hills  ?  It  fell  to  her  to  manage  the  meagre 
salary  so  that  eight  children  could  have  the 
best  education  afforded  by  the  schools,  col- 
leges and  seminaries  of  that  day.  To  her 
far  more  than  their  father,  who  was  absent 
most  of  the  time,  these  children  owe  the  train- 
ing which  gave  high  ideals  of  life  and  broad 
and  inspiring  views  of  the  kingdom  of  God. 
She  interpreted  the  Bible  and  translated  it 
into  the  language  of  childhood.  She  made  a 
manual  training  school  of  the  home,  for 
which  she  was  especially  fitted  as  a  pupil  of 
Mary  Lyons. 

If  Dr.  Little  had  the  care  of  all  the 
churches,  she  had  the  care  of  all  the  ministers 
— yes,  and  of  their  families  too — who  used 
to  come  and  stay  until  a  field  of  labor  could 
be  found.  The  old  tent  of  Sheik  Abraham 
afforded  no  truer  hospitality  than  that  brick 
house  in  Madison  where  nearly  all  the  chil- 
dren were  born,  where  they  all  grew  up  and 
where  "angels"  —  and  some  others  —  were 
cheerfully  and  lovingly  cared  for. 

On    September    nineteenth,    1881,    a    few 


124.     HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

months  before  his  death,  the  golden  wedding 
of  Dr.  Little  and  his  wife  was  appropriately 
celebrated  at  their  home  in  Madison.  The  ex- 
ercises had  been  arranged  and  were  in  the 
main  conducted  by  a  committee  of  the  Presby- 
tery of  New  Albany  appointed  for  this  pur- 
pose. It  afforded  an  opportunity  for  his  many 
friends,  either  by  their  presence  or  by  cor- 
respondence, to  give  expression  to  their  ap- 
preciation of  his  life-work  and  to  show  by 
loving  words  and  liberal  gifts  their  admira- 
tion, love  and  gratitude  to  this  noble  husband 
and  wife  for  what  they  had  been  able  to  do 
together  in  their  busy,  self-denying  fifty 
years  of  married  life. 

One  of  the  latest  utterances  and  noblest 
speeches  of  Dr.  Little  was  made  in  the  Synod 
of  Indiana  when  the  poor  pay  and  hard  work 
of  the  ministry  were  being  discussed.  Dr. 
Little  arose  and  with  loving  protest  began  to 
tell  of  his  happy  ministry, — how  many  thou- 
sands he  had  seen  accept  the  great  salvation; 
how  many  young  men  he  had  turned  toward 
the  ministry ;  how  many  friends  he  had ;  what 
evidence  of  divine  favor.  "And  now,"  said 
he,  "I  am  near  the  end  of  the  journey,  but  I 
have  four  sons  to  hold  forth  the  word  of  life 
after  I  am  gone.  Let  no  man  pity  me,  a  very 
humble  but  a  very  happy  minister  of  the 
gospel." 


HENRY    LITTLE  125 

His  mantle  has  fallen  upon  the  son  named 
for  him.  Following  in  his  father's  footsteps 
with  much  of  the  same  ability  and  success 
for  twenty-five  years  he  has  filled  the  same 
office  of  Superintendent  of  Home  Missions  in 
the  great  State  of  Texas. 


CHAPTER    VII. 

ONE  OF  THE  "MISSOURI  TEN," 
TIMOTHY  HILL,  D.D. 

1819—1887. 
By  John  B.  Hill,  D.D.* 

It  is  difficult  to  condense  into  the  short 
limits  of  a  sketch  a  statement  of  the  facts  nec- 
essary to  the  right  understanding  of  any  life- 
work  worth  studying.  So  at  least  we  find  it 
in  writing  of  Timothy  Hill^  perhaps  the  best 
known  synodical  missionary  of  his  day. 

He  was  descended  from  pious  and  patriotic, 
energetic  and  thrifty  Puritan  pioneers,  long- 
lived  and  fairly  influential.  His  were  schol- 
arly antecedents,  inclination  and  opportuni- 
ties. His  life  was  filled  with  continuous 
ministerial  activity  from  ordination  to  death, 
attended  with  more  than  ordinary  honors  and, 
presumably  therefore,  with  reasonable  suc- 
cess. His  varied  labors  required  constructive 
and  executive  ability.  He  had  historical  in- 
stincts and  literary  tastes,  for  whose  gratifica- 

*  Son  of  Dr.  Timothy  Hill  and  synodical  missionary 
in  Missouri. — Eds. 

126 


Timothy  Hill,  D.D.,    1819-1887 


TIMOTHY    HILL  127 

tion  little  time  could  be  taken  from  the  en- 
grossing cares  of  official  life.  The  predomi- 
nant spirit  of  the  whole  life  was  evidently 
missionary. 

The  childhood  of  Timothy  Hill  was  doubt- 
less fairly  happy  and  useful;  but  neither 
theoretically  nor  experimentally  could  he  en- 
dorse the  oft-expressed  sentiment  that  "A  boy 
is  seeing  the  happiest  days  of  his  life." 

His  own  experience  was  that  every  period 
of  life,  however  great  its  perplexities,  was, 
as  it  should  be,  happier  than  any  that  pre- 
ceded. His  home  experiences  will  be  reason- 
ably understood  when  we  say  that  he  was 
born  and  reared  on  a  farm,  in  a  small,  retired 
village,  fifty  miles  from  Boston.  His  broth- 
ers and  older  sisters,  all  much  older  than  he, 
soon  left  home  for  distant  homes  of  their 
own.  But  to  the  youngest  six  of  his  sisters 
he  was  a  companion,  helper,  pet  and  tease. 
At  seven  he  fell  from  a  stone  wall  and  broke 
his  right  arm.  About  fifty  years  later,  in 
Kansas,  he  was  thrown  from  a  spring  wagon, 
and  broke  the  other  arm.  Neither  arm  ever 
fully  recovered  its  strength,  a  fact  which,  in 
his  years  of  missionary  travel,  caused  many 
a  weary  rest,  when  between  depot  and  home 
or  hotel  he  had  to  carry  his  own  heavy 
satchel.  In  his  teens  came  another  accident 
— so    called — which    incapacitated    him    for 


1S8     HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

farm  labor,  and  thus  opened  for  him  the  way 
to  college  and  to  the  ministry.  Years  after- 
ward the  eifect  of  that  same  accident  again 
wrought  a  sudden  change  in  his  life,  and 
transferred  him  from  a  village  to  a  city  work. 
Of  his  early  religious  life,  the  Rev.  Dr. 
John  Spaulding,  who  had  assisted  his  father, 
the  Rev.  Ebenezer  Hill,  in  a  revival  season 
in  1827,  when  eighty-six  imited  with  the 
Mason  church,  wrote  sixty  years  later: 

"For  a  while  special  religious  interest  was 
confined  to  adults  and  heads  of  families;  but 
now  it  reached  the  young,  a  large  number  of 
whom  have  since  shone  as  lights  in  the  world. 
But  where  was  the  youngest  son  of  the  fam- 
ily? I  inquired  for  him  one  day,  and  found 
he  was  in  the  field,  hoeing  Iiis  father's  corn.  I 
went  to  him;  told  him  that  many  had  chosen 
the  good  part,  and  assured  him  that  now  was 
his  accepted  time,  and  the  day  of  his  salva- 
tion. He  believed  it  and  acted  accordingly, 
frankly  and  freely  saying  that  he  wanted  an 
interest  in  Christ.  Thus  Timothy,  at  the  age 
of  eight  years,  like  Josiah,  King  of  Judah, 
began  to  serve  the  God  of  his  father.  At  the 
late  anniversary  of  the  Union  Theological 
Seminary,  he  very  tenderly  reminded  me  anew 
of  that  scene  in  the  cornfield,  intimating  that 
then  and  there  he  consecrated  his  mind  and 
heart  to  the  Lord." 


TIMOTHY    HILL  129 

But — possibly  because  he  was  then  thought 
too  young  for  church  membership — he  did 
not  imite  with  the  church  until  he  was  sixteen 
years  of  age,  at  which  time  he  wrote  on  a 
slip  of  paper,  still  carefully  preserved  by  his 
family, 

"I  am  now  resolved  to  be  the  Lord's,  to 
resign  myself  to  the  will  of  God. 

(Signed)  "Timothy  Hill." 

From  that  time  on  he  was  unceasingly  active 
in  Christian  work,  careful  of  his  own  relig- 
ious life,  and  intensely  missionary  in  spirit. 

The  desire  to  go  as  a  foreign  missionary, 
preferably  to  India,  was  uppermost  in  his 
mind  for  years  while  in  college  and  semi- 
nary. But  the  close  of  his  course  found  him 
so  deeply  in  debt  for  his  education  that  he 
could  not  honorably  go  until  that  debt  was 
paid.  He  therefore  went  to  Missouri  in  the 
fall  of  1845  as  one  of  a  band  of  ten  young 
theologues  induced  to  go  by  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Artemas  Bullard,  pastor  of  the  First  Presby- 
terian church  of  St.  Louis,  who  was  then 
soliciting  funds  for  the  starting  of  the  Mis- 
souri Church  Erection  Fund,  the  first  such 
fund  established  by  any  denomination.  But 
on  the  small  home  missionary  salary  of  those 
days  ($350  to  $400),  from  which  he  had  to 
deduct  the  cost  of  several  trips  to  the  old 
home    during    the    declining    years    of    his 


130     HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

parents,  it  took  him  over  ten  years  to  pay  that 
debt,  and  left  him  almost  a  physical  wreck — ■ 
glad  to  do  even  a  small  work  in  the  home 
land. 

Dr.  Hill's  ideal  ministerial  life  was  that 
of  his  own  father, — a  lifetime  settlement  over 
one  charge.  Yet — like  most  western  minis- 
ters— he  himself  was  never  installed.  West- 
ern fields  then  as  now  offered  little  promise 
of  long  pastorates, — not  because  smaller  or 
weaker  than  eastern  villages  where  such  pas- 
torates are  common,  but  because  of  a  popula- 
tion more  restless  and  less  homogeneous,  con- 
stantly shifting  from  or  to  the  older  States,  or 
from  frontier  to  frontier. 

From  his  readiness  at  public  speaking  one 
would  never  have  suspected  what  was  never- 
theless true, — that  his  father  was  also  his 
ideal  sermonizer,  habitually  preaching  from 
carefully  prepared  manuscript.  Very  few 
such  sermons  did  he  himself  ever  preach. 
Rather  his  first  preaching  experience,  while 
still  in  the  Seminary,  was  a  sort  of  fore- 
taste of  what  he  would  have  to  do  in  later 
years.  He  used  to  relate  that  the  congrega- 
tion in  Dr.  Hatfield's  church,  which  he  then 
attended,  one  morning  gathered  as  usual,  but 
the  pastor  came  not.  A  little  after  the  hour 
for  service  one  of  the  elders  asked  the  young 
theologue  if  he  would  not  preach,  as  other- 


TIMOTHY    HILL  131 

wise  the  congregation  must  be  dismissed 
without  a  sermon  and  too  late  to  go  elsewhere. 
He  finally  consented,  gave  out  a  long  hymn, 
during  the  singing  of  which  he  collected  his 
thoughts  as  best  he  could,  and  then  gave  off- 
hand the  substance  of  a  recent  theological 
lecture  he  had  heard.  When  he  went  West, 
he  had  to  preach  in  much  the  same  way,  as 
western  audiences  were  then  even  more  averse 
than  now  to  written  sermons.  Their  feeling, 
as  expressed  to  a  brother  minister  of  his,  was 
that  manner  counted  for  more  than  matter : — 

"We  can  eat  hoe-cake,  sir;  but  we  want  it 
hot,  sir, — we  want  it  hot!" 

Dr.  Hill's  first  charge  kept  him  almost 
constantly  in  the  saddle,  serving  three  small 
churches.  He  left  it  mainly  because  of  his 
pronounced  disapproval  of  slavery,  which 
permeated  the  whole  life  of  the  community. 
Believing  nevertheless  that  slaveholding  Mis- 
souri was  as  legitimate  a  mission  field  as  caste- 
bound  India  or  priest-ridden  Mexico,  he  took 
a  second  and  a  third  field  in  the  same  State. 
In  each  field — in  spite  of  continued  opposi- 
tion to  slavery — he  labored  for  years  with  fair 
success,  preaching  in  good  houses  of  worship 
erected  under  his  ministry.  Then  came  the 
Civil  War  with  its  attendant  controversy  and 
bitterness,  which  wrecked  his  church  and  sent 
him  to  labor  for  four  years  in  Illinois  where 


132     HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

again  his  people  erected  a  house  of  worship 
under  his  leadership.  The  War  had  scarcely 
closed  when  he  was  back  in  Missouri  organiz- 
ing the  Second  Presbyterian  Church  of  Kan- 
sas City,  building  its  house  of  worship,  and 
getting  it  started  on  its  noble  career  of  local 
and  missionary  effort. 

During  all  these  years  in  obscure  pulpits 
Dr.  Hill  had  much  to  do  with  the  home  mis- 
sion work  of  his  presbytery  and  synod.  He 
conducted  evangelistic  meetings  for  his 
brother  ministers;  was  the  colaborer  and  suc- 
cessor of  Dr.  Artemas  Bullard  in  the  man- 
agement of  the  Missouri  Home  Missionary 
Society  and  of  the  ]\Iissouri  Church  Erection 
Fund;  wrote  much  concerning  Missouri  and 
the  West  to  the  American  Home  Missionary 
Society  and  to  the  religious  press;  and  spoke 
in  many  eastern  pulpits  while  on  his  frequent 
trips  on  various  ecclesiastical  errands  and  on 
visits  to  the  old  home.  On  all  these  jour- 
neyings,  whether  for  business,  for  pleasure  or 
for  health,  he  became  acquainted  in  a  remark- 
able degree  with  the  religious  conditions  and 
needs  of  the  wide  territory  traversed.  He 
thus  gained  an  accurate,  personal  knowledge 
of  the  whole  field  north  of  the  Ohio  and  east 
of  the  Rockies.  In  later  life  he  visited  all 
parts  of  this  country,  except  the  Southeast. 

In  the  work  of  his  denomination  he  was 


TIMOTHY    HILL  133 

ever  intensely  interested,  not  as  a  sectarian 
(though  he  strongly  preferred  Presbyterian- 
ism  to  any  other  doctrine  or  polity),  but  be- 
cause through  it  as  through  other  denomina- 
tions souls  were  reached  and  brought  into  the 
Kingdom  of  his  divine  Master.  Beginning 
his  ministerial  life  almost  at  the  time  of  the 
division  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  into  Old 
School  and  New  School,  he  threw  his  energy 
into  the  New  School  so  fully  as  to  have  a  per- 
sonal acquaintance  with  nearly  every  minister 
of  prominence  in  the  denomination.  His 
varied  experience  and  his  long  residence  in 
St.  Louis  and  in  Kansas  City  largely  increased 
that  acquaintance  and  made  warm  friends  of 
many  of  these  distant  acquaintances.  He  was 
a  splendid  judge  of  men  and  of  opportuni- 
ties ;  as  for  example  in  the  case  of  Dr.  Henry 
Kendall,  whom  he  did  much  to  place  in  the 
office  that  the  great  Home  Missionary  Secre- 
tary so  long  filled  with  distinguished  ability. 

There  were  in  Dr.  Hill's  life  three  long 
periods  of  serious  ill  health,  though  never  a 
d«iy  when  he  was  not  up  and  dressed.  The 
first,  which  was  an  outgrowth  of  the  accident 
of  his  boyhood,  kept  him  months  indoors  and 
finally  broke  up  his  work  in  St.  Charles.  The 
second  was  aggravated  by  his  teaching,  while 
also  doing  full  work  in  his  St.  Louis  church 
in  the  last  desperate  struggle  to  wipe  out 


1S4)     HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

that  long-standing  debt.  The  third  sent  him 
at  the  request  of  Dr.  Kendall  on  a  winter 
journey  of  six  hundred  miles,  by  ambulance 
and  on  horseback,  to  explore  the  war-blasted 
missions  among  the  Cherokees  of  the  Indian 
Territory,  and  later  for  several  weeks  with  a 
surveying  party  among  the  forests  of  Wis- 
consin. 

The  visit  to  the  Cherokees  in  1867;,  by 
whom  he  was  thereafter  beloved  to  the  day 
of  his  death,  gave  him  his  first  sight  of  a 
people  in  whom  he  had  been  deeply  inter- 
ested ever  since  his  seminary  daj^s.  At  that 
time  he  had  considered  a  position  as  mission- 
ary teacher  among  their  eastern  brethren  in 
the  mountains  of  Tennessee  and  Georgia. 
His  report  on  his  visit  aroused  the  denomma- 
tion  to  reopen  the  missions  (which  had  been 
abandoned  by  the  American  Board  of  Com- 
missioners for  Foreign  Missions  during  the 
War),  and  as  soon  as  possible  to  appoint  a 
District  Secretary  to  superintend  the  home 
mission  work  in  the  Southwest.  For  that 
office,  whenever  established,  he  had  long  been 
Dr.  Kendall's  choice.  He  preferred  the  pul- 
pit. But  when  health  would  not  permit  his 
preaching  regularly  he  finally  accepted  the 
place  offered  him,  and  entered  upon  it  in  Octo- 
ber, 1868.  That  work  proved  the  very  tonic 
needed.     Arduous  as  it  was,  especially  in  the 


TIMOTHY    HILL  135 

days  before  railroads,  it  probably  prolonged 
his  life,  as  it  certainly  did  his  usefulness. 

Western  church  history  has  many  times 
been  largely  moulded  by  missionary  bands, 
sent  out  to  labor  in  a  given  State  or  Terri- 
tory. The  American  Home  Missionary  So- 
ciety sent  out  several  such  bands  by  which 
the  early  history  of  some  regions  was  made 
predominantly  Congregational  in  some  in- 
stances, in  others  Presbyterian.  Of  the  lat- 
ter class  were  "the  Auburn  Seven"  who  came 
to  Missouri  in  1830,  and  the  "Missouri  Ten," 
of  whom  Dr.  Hill  was  one,  in  ISl-S.  No 
doubt  partially  in  remembrance  of  the  work 
of  such  bands,  he  corresponded,  while  still 
in  his  pulpit,  with  members  of  the  senior  class 
of  1868  in  Union  Theological  Seminary,  and 
took  advantage  of  his  attendance  on  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly  that  spring  to  visit  the  Semi- 
nary also. 

Among  the  students  of  that  day  were  many 
young  army  officers  and  others,  who  had  in- 
terrupted their  educational  courses  to  serve 
their  country  at  the  front.  Of  such  students, 
largely  as  the  result  of  Dr.  Hill's  effort, 
eight  members  of  the  graduating  class  and 
two  others  from  the  same  Seminary  went 
west  that  summer  under  the  splendid  leader- 
ship of  Colonel  James  Lewis.  Settling  in 
eastern  Kansas  and  western   Missouri,  some 


136     HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

of  them  over  churches  they  themselves  gath- 
ered, they  so  added  to  the  strength  of  their 
Presbyteries  that  in  the  fall  the  new  Synod 
of  Kansas  was  set  off  from  the  Synod  of  Mis- 
souri, including  three  Kansas  Presbyteries 
and  those  of  Santa  Fe  and  Colorado.  Dr. 
Hill  then  gave  up  his  pulpit  and  became  Dis- 
trict Secretary  of  Home  Missions  over  a  ter- 
ritory covering  practically  all  the  country 
west  of  the  Mississippi  River  and  south  of 
Iowa  and  Nebraska  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico'. 

That  was  a  time  when  there  was  much  tr 
do — and  to  do  quickly.  Immigration  was 
then  unprecedented  in  volume  and  various  in 
character.  The  railroads  beat  the  immi- 
grants' wagons  into  hundreds  of  beautifiV^ 
valleys  and  smiling  plains.  Cities  sprang  up 
like  mushrooms,  many  of  them  to  become 
permanent.  Religious  activity  was  never 
more  needed.  Providentially  the  divided 
forces  of  Presbyterianism  were  then  fast 
hastening  to  the  Reunion  of  1870.  Under  the 
leadership  of  the  new  Synodical  Missionary 
(as  the  District  Secretary  was  soon  called) 
churches  were  organized  in  residences,  halls, 
store  buildings,  railroad  depots  and  plains' 
dugouts,  according  to  the  frontier  necessities 
in  each  case, — many  of  them  "in  advance  of 
all  others,"  as  the  New  School  organizers 
always  endeavored  to  be.    Often  the  first  ser- 


TIMOTHY    HILL  137 

mon  in  a  new  town  was  preached  by  Dr.  Hill, 
his  hearers  gathered  in  some  unfinished  room 
or  in  the  open  air,  seated  on  boards  laid  on 
nail  kegs  or  beer  kegs,  while  his  extem- 
porized pulpit  was  a  dry  goods  box,  possibly 
lighted  with  a  tallow  candle  attached  to  the 
box  by  its  own  grease.  These  primitive  con- 
ditions soon  gave  place  to  those  of  civiliza- 
tion; and  dedications,  installations,  and  num- 
berless meetings  of  Presbytery  followed.  In 
all  of  these  the  Synodical  Missionary  was 
f-xpected  to  have  some  part. 

Missouri  was  the  older  State  of  his  bish- 
opric. After  the  War  it  grew  rapidly  for  a 
lime,  but  soon  the  wave  of  population  flowed 
tover  it  in  reaching  the  farther  West.  Be- 
fore that  time  Missouri  had  come  to  need  the 
full  time  of  a  Synodical  Missionary  of  its 
own,  and  Dr.  J.  W.  Allen  was  appointed  as 
Dr.  Hill's  successor.  The  mountain  region 
also  began  to  fill  up  and  before  Timothy  Hill 
had  time  to  visit  it  Sheldon  Jackson,  a  more 
picturesque  pioneer,  was  appointed  to  super- 
vise it.  But  in  the  vast  interior  region  that 
was  left  him  there  remained  a  work  that 
taxed  to  the  utmost  his  time,  strength  and 
thought.  The  unprecedented  growth  of  Kan- 
sas was  checked  by  the  grasshopper  scourge 
of  1874-5,  only  to  be  redoubled  by  the  pros- 
perity of  1876,  when  Kansas  made  a  mag- 


138     HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

nificent  showing  at  the  Centennial  Exposi- 
tion in  Philadelphia. 

In  that  year  Dr.  Hill  prepared  for  the 
meeting  of  the  Synod  a  Historical  Sketch  of 
the  Presbyterian  Church  in  Kansas  (pub- 
lished as  a  forty-six  page  pamphlet),  in 
which  he  called  attention  to  the  missionary 
aspect  of  that  whole  history.     He  said: 

"Kansas  Synod  in  its  origin,  growth  and  all 
its  life,  is  missionary  in  the  fullest  sense. 
Here  the  foreign  missionary  who  began  to 
preach  to  pagans  continued  until  his  work 
came  into  the  present  home  mission  work.  As 
he  met  and  cared  for  the  children  of  the 
Church,  who  left  their  churches  behind,  as 
they  came  seeking  new  homes,  so  now  the 
home  and  foreign  missionary  are  in  the  same 
Presbytery,  and  near  neighbors  in  the  locali- 
ties in  which  they  dwell.  The  foreign  and  the 
home  interblend  in  inseparable  union  here. 

"Every  church  in  all  Kansas  Synod  owes  its 
origin  to  missionary  work.  The  Mission 
Boards  have  cared  for  this  Synod  with  a  most 
liberal  hand;  and  in  harmony  with  them  the 
Church  Erection  Board  has  come  in  to  aid  in 
sheltering  the  tender  flocks.  There  is  but  a 
single  church  in  Kansas  that  has  never  drawn 
home  mission  funds,  and  that  had  its  origin 
in  the  same  way,  and  is  exceptional  only  be- 
cause its  pastor  was  a  missionary  Board  to 


TIMOTHY    HILL  139 

himself.  .  .  .  Patriotic  they  were  withal, 
and  anxious  to  develop  the  country,  for  each 
one  is  by  vote  of  Presbytery  a  committee  to 
induce  settlers  into  his  neighborhood." 

To  cover  so  large  a  territory,  especially  dur- 
ing the  years  before  Texas  was  released  from 
his  bishopric,  required  almost  constant  travel. 
Returning  home  from  his  long  trips  he  could 
take  no  time  for  rest,  but  must  turn  at  once 
to  the  great  pile  of  accumulated  correspond- 
ence, far  different  from  the  same  sized  pile 
of  correspondence  that  daily  faces  the  busi- 
ness man  who  can  dictate  many  short,  formal 
letters  and  statements  to  be  written  and  sent 
by  his  stenographer.  Dr.  Hill's  average  let- 
ter, always  penned  by  himself,  embodied  his 
own  personal  knowledge  and  estimate  of  the 
field  or  man  mentioned;  his  plea  for  a  for- 
ward movement  or  for  the  strengthening  of 
things  that  remained;  his  report  on  recent 
journeyings;  his  plan  for  a  campaign,  or  his 
advice  in  a  matter  of  business. 

Few  commercial  travelers  of  his  day  were 
more  steadily  "on  the  road"  than  Dr.  Hill, 
and  none  of  them  had  his  chance  to  study 
life  in  all  its  aspects.  Unlike  them,  he  was 
expected  not  to  stop  at  the  hotel  but  to  be  the 
guest  of  some  home  in  every  town  or  neigh- 
borhood visited.  And  in  every  home,  whether 
of   city    elegance    or   of    frontier   primitive- 


140     HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

ness,  a  welcome  guest  he  always  was  or 
soon  became  on  account  of  his  genial  spirit, 
his  ready  conversation  and  vast  fund  of  anec- 
dote, his  earnest  purpose  and  his  sunny  relig- 
ious life.  He  thus  acquired  such  a  thorough 
knowledge  of  a  wide  territory — in  its  agri- 
cultural, commercial,  manufacturing,  and  rail- 
road possibilities  and  development,  no  less 
than  in  its  political,  educational  and  religious 
life — that  he  was  known  for  years  as  "a  walk- 
ing encyclopaedia  of  the  West."  His  business 
judgment  as  well  as  his  knowledge  was  re- 
spected and  was  always  at  the  disposal  of  any 
that  asked.  Naturally  he  was  consulted  on  a 
great  variety  of  questions  foreign  to  the  chief 
occupation  of  his  life,  and  earned  the  lasting 
gratitude  of  many  a  person,  and  of  many  an 
institution,  for  the  information  and  advice  he 
freely  gave. 

Time  has  but  emphasized  the  admiration  in 
which  Dr.  Hill  was  held  by  his  large  circle  of 
acquaintances.  As  the  father's  life  closed,  his 
oldest  son  was  entering  upon  the  ministry. 
That  son's  lot  has  called  him  to  speak  in  many 
pulpits  other  than  his  own.  With  scarce  an 
exception,  in  all  the  years  of  his  ministry,  he 
has  never  closed  such  a  service  without  hear- 
ing from  some  stranger  a  reminiscence  of  his 
father's  visits  and  ministry,  accompanied  by 
words  of  affectionate  regard. 


TIMOTHY    HILL  141 

Another  marked  proof  of  the  esteem  in 
which  his  father  was  held  came  very  miex- 
pectedly  fifteen  years  after  his  death  when 
the  son  was  a  visitor  at  the  General  Assembly 
of  1902  in  New  York  City.  During  the  cele- 
bration by  the  Assembly  of  the  Home  Mission 
Centennial  there  were  three  eloquent  ad- 
dresses upon  the  work  of  home  missions, — ea«t 
of  the  Alleghanies,  in  the  IMississippi  Valley 
and  on  the  Pacific  Coast.  These  were  listened 
to  with  quiet  and  interested  attention  through- 
out, except  that  when  the  name  of  Timothy 
Hill  was  mentioned  there  was  immediate 
and  generous  applause  from  all  parts  of  the 
house.  Truly  such  is  a  son's  richest  possible 
heritage. 

In  closing  this  fragmentary  sketch,  we  can- 
not do  better  than  to  quote  from  some  of  the 
many  tributes  to  Dr.  Hill's  memory  soon  after 
his  death.  Among  them  that  of  Dr.  D.  C. 
Milner  before  the  Synod  of  Kansas  speaks 
most  fully  of  his  work  in  Kansas,  for  which 
he  will  ever  be  best  known.  Dr.  Milner  said 
in  part: — 

"The  growth  of  the  State  of  Kansas  has 
been  without  a  parallel.  .  .  .  The  growth 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church  is  also  unparal- 
leled. During  these  years  when  the  popula- 
tion of  the  State  has  increased  six  fold,  the 
membership  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  has 


142     HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

more  than  multiplied  thirteen  fold.  This  mar- 
velous growth  has  been  due  in  large  measure 
to  the  energy,  wisdom  and  devotion  of  Dr. 
Hill.  We  believe  that  no  other  man  has  done 
so  much  for  the  growth  of  the  Church  of 
Christ  in  Kansas,  as  well  as  that  of  the  Pres- 
byterian Church.  His  reports  as  Synodical 
Missionary  would  be  almost  a  complete  his- 
tory of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  Kansas 
for  seventeen  years.  We  sometimes  hear  of 
the  slowness  of  the  Presbyterian  Church.  In 
this  Synod  it  has  often  been  in  advance  of  all 
others.    .    .    . 

"He  had  preeminent  qualifications  for  his 
work  as  Superintendent  of  Missions.  He  was 
devoted  to  the  missionary  idea.  He  has  been 
well  called  'a  born  missionary.'  His  whole 
clerical  life  of  more  than  forty  years  was 
spent  in  home  mission  work.  He  had  broad 
ideas  of  the  work  to  be  done  in  the  West.  He 
had  studied  carefully  the  question  as  to  our 
exceptional  populations.  .  .  .  He  had  not 
only  planned  for  the  rural  districts  and  the 
smaller  towns,  but  had  advanced  ideas  on  the 
needs  of  the  cities  and  the  importance  of 
Church  Extension  in  those  great  centers  of 
population.  He  was  emphatically  a  western 
man,  and  Dr.  Nelson  well  styled  him  a  'walk- 
ing cyclopaedia  of  the  West.' 

"He  was  a  man  of  unusual  business  ability. 


TIMOTHY    HILL  143 

His  shrewdness,  however,  was  of  the  wise  and 
helpful  kind,  and  his  judgment  was  of  vast 
value  to  many  Church  enterprises.  He  had  a 
remarkable  power  in  reading  men,  and  his 
prophecies  as  to  the  future  of  ministers  rarely 
failed.  He  had  a  good  deal  of  sympathy 
with  weak  men ;  but  he  had  no  patience  with 
the  'dead  beat,'  who  occasionally  takes  the  role 
of  the  preacher,  and  tries  to  force  himself 
upon  churches  to  their  destruction.  Presby- 
teries would  have  saved  themselves  much 
trouble,  if  they  had  in  some  notable  instances 
profited  by  his  judgment.  There  is  some- 
times expressed  a  fear  of  the  'one-man 
power' ;  but  it  is  especially  true  in  the  work 
of  missions  that  the  wisdom  and  experience 
of  one  man  is  superior  to  the  confused  coun- 
sel of  many.  We  hear  at  times  of  the  need 
of  a  'ministerial  bureau'  to  bring  ministers 
and  vacant  churches  together.  Dr.  Hill  was 
himself  such  a  bureau.  There  are  many 
churches  in  the  Synod  to-day  that  are  thank- 
ful for  his  wisdom  in  sending  them  'the  right 
man  for  the  right  place.'  .  .  .  He  was  the 
great  medium  of  intelligence  between  minis- 
ters and  churches.  He  visited  the  Theological 
Seminaries,  and  urged  upon  them  the  claims 
of  home  mission  fields.  He  was  connected, 
directly  and  indirectly,  with  the  organization 
of  a  large  proportion  of  our  churches,  and  as- 


144     HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

sisted  at  the  dedication  of  many  houses  of 
worship.  In  his  visits  to  our  Presbyteries, 
how  often  did  he  show  that  he  knew  more 
about  the  work  in  their  bounds  than  any  mem- 
ber. He  assisted  in  settling  many  a  church 
quarrel.  He  deeply  sympathized  with  min- 
isters in  their  trials,  and  letters  of  tender 
comfort  from  him  can  be  found  in  homes  of 
bereavement.    .    .    . 

"We  sometimes  hear  of  a  Bishop  in  charge 
of  a  great  Diocese.  Here  was  a  Bishop  of  the 
true  Apostolic  succession,  and  a  Superintend- 
ent of  Missions  of  Kansas.  What  growth  and 
what  conquests  for  Christ  did  he  witness 
under  his  administration !  On  the  twenty-first 
of  May  he  was  found  dead,  with  his  glasses 
in  place,  and  a  letter  concerning  missionary 
work  dropped  from  his  hand.  A  few  moments 
before  he  looked  out  of  a  western  window 
from  the  Bluffs  of  Kansas  City  and  said, 
'What  a  splendid  prospect!'  His  last  vision 
of  this  earth  with  mortal  eyes  was  of  that 
State  for  which  he  had  an  intense  love,  and 
for  which  he  had  given  so  many  years  of 
labor,  and  his  last  thoughts  were  of  the  work 
among  the  Indians." 

Of  his  work  in  the  Indian  Territory  a  vol- 
ume might  be  written.  We  have  space,  how- 
ever, for  only  the  touching  resume  of  it  con- 
tained in  an  incident  related  by  Mrs.  Judge 


TIMOTHY    HILL  145 

Moore,  Superintendent  of  the  Indian  Train- 
ing School  at  Nuyaka,  which  was  included 
by  the  Board  of  Home  Missions  in  its  little 
leaflet  concerning  Dr.  Hill,  published  soon 
after  his  death.  She  then  wrote  of  one  of  his 
later  visits  to  the  Indian  Territory: 

"He  came  to  us  a  day  or  two  before  the 
meeting  of  that  child  of  his  own  heart,  the 
Muskogee  Presbytery,  and  three  of  us  went 
to  Okmulgee  with  him  to  the  meetings.  He 
sat  through  them  all,  wide  awake,  alert,  but 
saying  little,  except  occasionally,  if  there  was 
a  little  hesitancy,  or  some  subject  came  up 
where  his  advice  was  needed.  But  the  last 
night  of  the  Presbytery,  after  the  sermon  by 
an  applicant  for  licensure,  and  the  other  ex- 
ercises were  over,  he  arose  and  gave  the  Pres- 
bytery one  of  the  most  touching  and  effective 
talks  it  was  ever  my  privilege  to  hear.  His 
heart  seemed  to  be  full  of  the  magnitude  of 
the  work,  and  the  responsibility  resting  upon 
the  first  Indian  Presbyteries.  The  one  before 
him  was  composed  of  white  men  and  of  In- 
dians, some  of  whom  could  understand  only  his 
manner,  but  none  of  his  words.  It  was  like  a 
father's  charge  to  his  sons  whom  he  never  ex- 
pected to  see  again,  but  upon  whose  shoulders 
he  was  leaving  his  own  life. 

"The  following  morning  the  Presbytery 
broke  up;  but  there  seemed  to  be  scarce  one 


146     HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

of  the  members  and  visitors  who  felt  they 
could  leave  without  coming  to  the  jDleasant 
home  of  Mrs.  Robertson  (i.e.,  Mrs.  A.  E.  W. 
Robertson,  the  translator  of  the  Bible  into 
the  Creek  language),  where  Dr.  Hill  was  en- 
tertained, to  bid  them  both  good-by.  So 
there  were  twenty-six  in  that  parlor  when 
Mrs.  Robertson  handed  the  Bible  to  Dr.  Hill, 
requesting  him  to  conduct  family  prayers  once 
more  before  we  parted.  There  were  present 
the  representatives  of  Tahlequah,  Park  Hill, 
Nuyaka,  Muskogee,  and  Tulsa  of  the  Home 
Board;  of  Wealaka,  Eufaula  and  Wewohka 
of  the  Foreign;  and  of  Pittsburgh  Mission 
under  the  Freedmen's  Board.  Among  them 
were  the  veteran  missionaries.  Revs.  R.  M. 
Loughridge,  D.D.,  and  J.  R.  Ramsay,  and 
their  former  pupils.  Rev.  T.  W.  Ferryman 
and  Messrs.  J.  C.  Ferryman  and  D.  C.  Hodge ; 
and,  of  later  years  of  Mrs.  Robertson's  pupils. 
Rev.  Dorsey  Fife  and  Henry  Land,  together 
with  the  last  pupil  ever  received  at  Talla- 
hassee before  it  passed  into  the  hands  of  the 
Freedmen.  Mrs.  Robertson's  two  sisters  were 
with  her,  for  the  first  time  in  several  years, 
as  also  one  who  in  former  years  had  been  asso- 
ciated with  their  father.  Dr.  Worcester,  at 
Park  Hill,  who  was  much  like  a  daughter  in 
the  family,  now  again  in  the  work  for  the 
Indians  at  Nuyaka  Mission  (Mrs.  James  E. 


TIMOTHY    HILL  147 

Latta),    and    also    Mrs.    Robertson's    eldest 
daughter. 

"Dr.  Hill  seemed  almost  oppressed  with 
the  immensity  of  the  work  represented  by 
these  many  workers  in  fields  which  he  himself 
had  been  the  means  of  opening.  After  read- 
ing a  chapter  from  the  Bible,  we  imited  in 
singing  'Blest  be  the  tie  that  binds_,'  after 
which  we  knelt  together,  and  listened  to  one 
of  the  most  wonderful  prayers  I  ever  heard. 
He  prayed  in  such  a  manner  that  each  one 
felt  his  own  special  work  and  himself  com- 
mended to  God;  that  they  might  all  have  the 
constant  guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the 
work,  the  difficulties  of  which  seem  never  to 
have  impressed  him  so  much.  He  prayed  that 
they  might  have  a  special  grace  and  Avisdom 
given  them  for  reaching  the  heart  of  this 
'peculiar  people'  among  whom  they  were 
placed.  He  thanked  God  for  what  had  been 
done,  and  prayed  that  it  might  be  only  the 
beginning.  He  then  prayed  specially  for  a 
blessing  on  the  reunited  family  and  their  chil- 
dren, engaged  as  their  forefathers  had  been 
in  the  work  for  souls.  We  all  seemed  drawn 
nearer  together  and  to  God,  as  our  spiritual 
father  bore  us  together  to  the  throne  of  grace, 
and  I  think  there  were  few  dry  eyes.  The 
leavetakings  were  solemn  and  tender  when 
we  rose  to  our  feet,  and,  although  the  distance 


148     HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

to  be  traveled  was  great,  every  one  seemed 
loath  to  break  away." 

At  the  funeral  of  Dr.  Hill,  the  present 
Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Home  Missions, 
Dr.  Charles  L.  Thompson,  then  pastor  of  the 
Second  Presbyterian  Church  of  Kansas  City, 
made  the  principal  address.  In  closing  he 
said: 

"Dr.  Hill  was  a  born  missionary.  It  can 
be  truthfully  said  of  him  that  he  organized 
and  helped  to  organize  more  Presbyterian 
churches  in  this  country  than  any  other  man. 
Directly  or  indirectly  he  was  concerned  in  the 
organization  of  most  of  the  three  hundred 
churches  of  Kansas.  When  he  was  at  his 
own  request  released  from  the  care  of  the 
churches  of  Kansas,  he  threw  all  his  energy 
into  the  work  in  the  Indian  Territory.  Those 
who  have  talked  with  him  much  during  the 
past  year  know  how  unspeakably  full  his 
heart  was  of  the  work  and  its  promise.  In 
the  last  conversation  we  had  with  him,  just 
before  his  departure  for  the  East,  he  referred 
to  it  at  length  and  with  great  enthusiasm, 
and  then  said  it  was  a  long  story  and  he  would 
talk  it  over  with  us  again.  The  Church,  he 
said,  had  no  conception  of  the  opportunity 
that  is  there  presented.  The  last  rich  months 
of  his  life  he  lived  for  the  Indian  Territory, 
and    that    last    long    journey    to    the    East, 


TIMOTHY    HILL  149 

fatiguing  as  it  proved  to  be,  beyond  his 
strength,  was  undertaken  in  part  .  .  .  that 
he  might  once  more  plead  before  the  Board  of 
Missions  the  claims  of  the  Indian  work.  His 
love  for  the  work  at  the  closing  days  was  a 
touching  reminder  of  the  foreign  missionary 
zeal  of  the  student  days.  Thus  his  desire  to 
preach  to  the  heathen  was  reached  at  last; 
and  he  illustrated  in  his  work  the  sentiment  he 
expressed  in  print  only  a  few  months  ago 
when  he  said:  'Foreign  missions  and  home 
missions  are  so  blended  that  no  man  can  tell 
where  one  ends  and  the  other  begins:  and  no 
man  who  is  not  cordially  interested  in  both 
has  any  true  conception  of  the  spirit  of  the 
gospel,' 

"These  words,  as  Dr.  (Henry  A.)  Nelson 
said,  are  indeed  worthy  to  be  printed  in  gold; 
they  are  worthy  of  the  man  who  in  purpose 
as  a  boy  would  go  to  the  heathen,  who  gave 
his  strength  to  founding  churches  in  our  own 
country,  and  his  ripest  and  tenderest  months 
to  those  who  are  the  neglected  heathen  of  a 
Christian  land. 

"His  knowledge  of  men  was  commanding. 
We  have  never  known  a  man  who  could  give 
a  fairer,  clearer,  juster  estimate  of  people. 
With  charity  toward  all  and  malice  for  none 
he  held  and  expressed  his  own  convictions  in 
no  uncertain  way.    His  trumpet  gave  a  ring- 


150     HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

ing  sound.  And  yet,  while  he  was  tenacious 
of  his  opinions  and  extremely  frank  in  avow- 
ing them,  there  was  something  so  manly  in 
his  manner  and  so  kind  withal  that  firm- 
ness seldom  offended  and  frankness  seldom 
wounded.  He  had  no  smooth  arts  of  speech; 
he  never  sued  for  favor;  he  went  straight  on, 
but  with  consideration  so  tempering  earnest 
conviction,  and  a  kind  heart  so  appearing 
through  a  plainness  of  speech,  that  those 
whose  opinions  or  conduct  he  crossed  were 
still  his  stanch  friends. 

"The  cause  of  our  Church  in  all  the  West 
has  sustained  a  great  loss.  How  many  enter- 
prises will  miss  his  counsel  and  help !  The 
Presbyterian  Alliance  of  Kansas  City  into 
whose  projected  work  he  threw  himself  with 
great  energy;  the  Ladies'  College  at  Inde- 
pendence in  which  he  felt  a  great  interest; 
and  especially  Park  College  for  which  he  had 
the  highest  hopes  and  to  which  he  gave  him- 
self in  most  unstinted  measure, — how  all 
these  works  will  miss  his  strong  hand  and 
ready  word ! 

"The  history  of  Presbyterianism  in  this 
and  neighboring  States  is  also  a  great  loser  in 
his  death.  He  knew  more  about  the  religious 
development  of  Missouri  and  Kansas,  and 
more  about  the  marvelous  and  even  romantic 
history  of  missions  among  the  Indian  nations 


TIMOTHY    HILL  151 

than  any  living  man.  So  impressed  with  this 
fact  was  the  Synod  of  Missouri  that  a  few 
years  ago  they  asked  him  to  prepare  from  the 
valuable  materials  in  his  hand  and  in  his  mem- 
ory a  history  of  our  Church  in  this  State.  To 
this  large  work  he  hoped  to  give  his  declining 
years.  Much  knowledge  will  be  buried  to-day. 
The  busy  hand  and  brain  are  still,  and  much 
of  our  history  has  gone  into  the  irrecoverable 
past. 

"Two  of  the  fairest  of  our  States  will  be 
forever  associated  with  the  name  of  Timothy 
Hill.  Hundreds  of  churches  will  be  his 
monuments;  streams  of  blessing  across  the 
desert  will  tell  to  remotest  times  of  the  faith 
and  toil  of  the  prince  of  Presbyterian  Mis- 
sionaries. 

"His  son  found  him  dead;  but  the  angels 
had  called  him  into  life, — into  life  and  ever- 
lasting reward.  He  had  fought  the  good 
fight.  He  had  finished  his  course.  The 
saints  he  had  gathered  into  the  Kingdom  met 
him  at  the  goal,  and  the  angels  lowered  the 
crown  to  his  forehead — crown  of  righteous- 
ness, crown  of  glory.  'I  have  kept  the  faith.' 
Kept  it  he  had  in  stormy  days,  when  to  stand 
for  human  rights  and  an  undivided  Nation 
was  perilous ;  kept  it  in  stormy  days,  when  to 
stand  for  the  faith  once  delivered  to  tlie 
saints,  for  the  unity  and  purity  of  the  Church, 


152     HOME    MISSION    HEROES 

required  courage;  kept  the  faith  in  days  of 
high  debate  and  in  years  of  loyal  service, — 
and  the  Master  has  received  the  steward  with 
the  'Well  done,  good  and  faithful  servant.'  " 


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